Gareth Lock founded The Human Diver and wrote Under Pressure: Diving Deeper with Human Factors. I asked him what separates teams that perform at a high level from teams that only look good on paper.
What teams are made of
Gareth points to shared experiences, trust and a willingness to take responsibility. Teams develop those through practice. Many organizations skip that work and pay for it later, in misunderstandings and missed signals.
Risk and the debrief
We look at how technical skill, collaboration and risk management fit together. The debrief is where a team makes sense of what happened. Done well, it updates how the whole team orients to the next dive, flight or project.
Building the skills
Gareth shares communication techniques and hands-on learning activities from his workshops. Teamwork is a skill set, and people can train it. Reflection matters, and so does naming the key lessons out loud.
For me, this is the team OODA loop in practice. Shared orientation grows from honest reflection after the work is done.
What would your team learn from a ten-minute debrief after its next project?
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