Our special column focuses on resilience, a vital issue for shipping industry – and other industries as well – given that the human element lies at the heart of the safety culture. Resilience is a choice and a skill that can be learnt, involving behaviors and actions that can be developed in anyone. A resilient person is able to look for opportunities in problems, has a positive attitude, learns from mistakes and finds power in every situation to overcome difficulties. This time, we have asked global experts to provide feedback on the following question:
“What are the key drivers & barriers towards developing a resilient culture across the industry?”
David Price, Managing Director, Wallem Shipmanagement Ltd.
The key driver towards developing a resilient culture is to help people get into the habit of thinking and responding effectively under high pressure. Training our brains to see stress in a different way will allow us to bounce back and manage setbacks more positively. It will also help us deal with challenges more effectively using a wide range of techniques. The biggest barrier towards the development of a resilient culture across the industry is people who are reluctant to change. Mindset change has always been one of the biggest barriers to transformation for many businesses. If this barrier can be overcome then resilience can be built up through a focus on positive thinking, behavior and thought processes.
Erik Green, CEO, Green- Jakobsen A/S
In my job, I get to visit and work with many shipping companies. Where ever I go the question is the same: What is resilience? My answer to this question is to focus on the intention behind rather than understanding the definition of resilience. For me the intention behind is to ensure that an organization has as many ‘active’ human, communicative, equipment, procedures, processes behind to manage work related risks and hazards. Resilience is active, alive and involves the entire organization – both ship and shore. The more ‘active’ mechanism in place the more resilient an organisation will be. Rather than trying to recover from difficulties (The definition of resilience), we need to aim for not getting into difficulties.
Dr. Luiza Shahbazyan, Product Manager, CAT Safebridge
People tend to think of resilience as a stable personality characteristic and for me this is the most serious barrier when investing in this important “soft” skill. On the contrary, resilience can be assessed and developed, just like any other skill. Life at sea can be dangerous, difficult and lonely, affecting the well-being of the seafarers, but also their ability to perform effectively while on-board. Resilient people do well even in adverse environments and this makes the skill very relevant to our industry. But the capacity of people to be resilient does not depend solely on them. An organization that encourages positive coping and good interpersonal relationships can directly increase the resilience of its seafarers both as individuals and as teams.
Kostas Vlachos, Chief Operating Officer, CMM
The shipping industry today faces many challenges, which are mainly coming from legislators, society, customers, financial institutes. This situation creates a very demanding environment with a lot of requirements and high caliber standards that require the human element to become the focal point in the plans of all stakeholders. In this regard, the development of a resilient culture that will allow the human factor to cope in a successful way with all the demanding challenges, is a necessary necessity and without it will become very difficult the achievement of any safety target. The mentality of the human element, the low education and training on the subjects of soft skills, the internet, the different cultures and nationalities onboard along with the fact that the proper development of a resilient policy and culture was a low priority target and goal up to day for the majority of the shipping companies are the main barriers towards the developing a successful resilient culture. To the opposite the leadership commitment is the main driver for that purpose.
Stuart Rivers, CEO, Sailors’ Society
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nternational maritime welfare charity Sailors’ Society created its Wellness at Sea coaching programme in 2015 to help improve seafarers’ on board wellbeing. We have recently conducted a survey into seafarers’ mental health, revealing that more than a quarter of seafarers show signs of depression. Loneliness, isolation and fatigue are all barriers towards developing a resilient culture across the industry. Wellness at Sea and our chaplains can help on a day-to-day basis and the industry can act as a driving force knowing that a healthy seafarer leads to a healthy ship and ultimately a healthy balance sheet.
Capt. Nicolo Terrei, Managing Director, RINA Academy Philippines
Training is vital part of the human resource development, and current events have proven why it’s necessary for the crew progress. Key drivers towards developing resilient culture could be: Company commitment to the resilient culture program; Compliance to International regulations (STCW and MLC 2006); Better ship to shore communication regarding implementation of resilient culture; Building recreational activities to reduce crew’s anxiety; Superiors resilience counselling with juniors. On the contrary, barriers could be: Multi-nationality cultures and different views for resilient culture; The financial cost for the shipowner on investing in a resilient culture program; Lack of cooperation and self-confidence to consult problems to supervisors. Therefore, Company’s commitment should include allocation of funds to support seafarer’s welfare on board.
Capt. Andreas Togantzis, Safety – Quality & Marine Manager, DPA / CSO, Alpha Bulkers Shipmanagement Inc
Building a Resilient Culture, both ashore and on-board ships, requires to overcome and fight the following barriers: complacency, overconfidence and lack of implementing company’s procedures, which mostly arise from unfamiliarity with ISM Code requirements. The key drivers are: inspire, mention, ask questions, tell stories and analyze incidents in such way to give the right motive and to train through reflecting learning. However, this cannot be achieved without appropriate training programs and focusing on human performance, which aspire to help shore staff and seagoing personnel to get more flexible thinking and obtain the capacity to face up any circumstances.
