Storytelling to Learn: What happens underwater, stays underwater.
(2024) FLMU16 20232Division of Risk Management and Societal Safety
- Abstract (Swedish)
- This research uniquely addresses the underexplored area of storytelling as a medium for learning and safety in sports diving, a high-risk discretionary activity. It achieves this by utilising a comprehensive mixed-method approach, that incorporates online surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders in the diving community. The informants were diverse, both geographically and in experience and qualification, and covering recreational and professional divers, instructors, and legal experts.
The purpose of the research was to identify the factors that influence the telling of context-rich stories following an adverse event in diving. The research uncovers significant gaps in the existing... (More) - This research uniquely addresses the underexplored area of storytelling as a medium for learning and safety in sports diving, a high-risk discretionary activity. It achieves this by utilising a comprehensive mixed-method approach, that incorporates online surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders in the diving community. The informants were diverse, both geographically and in experience and qualification, and covering recreational and professional divers, instructors, and legal experts.
The purpose of the research was to identify the factors that influence the telling of context-rich stories following an adverse event in diving. The research uncovers significant gaps in the existing formal and informal incident reporting systems in diving, primarily marked by a very strong tendency towards attributing individual blame, thereby neglecting systemic factors. The research identifies key barriers to sharing experiences and stories in the diving world, such as cultural norms, fear of litigation, and the absence of effective communication platforms (technical and social). These challenges result in varied perceptions of risk and safety across different diving groups, and consequently, how to manage them.
Numerous learning opportunities are hidden from the diving community because of the socio-technical barriers present; barriers which have been recognised in other domains and where work has been done to dismantle them using the principles and tools from the sciences of human factors and system safety. The application of these tools and principles in domains such as aviation and healthcare have enabled the telling and sharing of context-rich stories surrounding both adverse events and positive outcomes, thereby leading to increased organisational and individual learning and safety. Given that safety is an emergent property of the system, these findings advocate for a similar integration of human factors and system safety principles into the sports diving domain, cognisant that the sport is, in the main, unregulated and is discretionary in nature. The thesis proposes a shift from a blame-focused culture to a learning-oriented culture, emphasising the necessity of creating a safe environment for divers to share their stories through the development of a Just Culture. This shift is crucial for enhancing safety practices through shared learning. Those responsible for the shift are leaders within the industry – not just those in organisational leadership positions, but also those who are role models in the ‘fun’ diving and exploration space.
The research contributes substantially to the domain of diving safety by promoting a systemic approach to safety in SCUBA diving, recognising the interdependence of organisational and cultural factors, and the critical factors associated with the telling and sharing of a context-rich story. It emphasises the potential of storytelling as a key tool for learning and safety improvement, advocating for a cultural and organisational change towards openness, learning, and resilience in not just diving, but also other high-risk leisure activities. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9151225
- author
- Lock, Gareth LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- FLMU16 20232
- year
- 2024
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Storytelling, diving, incident analysis, just culture, fear, FLMU06
- language
- English
- id
- 9151225
- date added to LUP
- 2024-04-30 09:58:59
- date last changed
- 2024-04-30 09:58:59
@misc{9151225,
abstract = {{This research uniquely addresses the underexplored area of storytelling as a medium for learning and safety in sports diving, a high-risk discretionary activity. It achieves this by utilising a comprehensive mixed-method approach, that incorporates online surveys, focus groups, and interviews to gather perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders in the diving community. The informants were diverse, both geographically and in experience and qualification, and covering recreational and professional divers, instructors, and legal experts.
The purpose of the research was to identify the factors that influence the telling of context-rich stories following an adverse event in diving. The research uncovers significant gaps in the existing formal and informal incident reporting systems in diving, primarily marked by a very strong tendency towards attributing individual blame, thereby neglecting systemic factors. The research identifies key barriers to sharing experiences and stories in the diving world, such as cultural norms, fear of litigation, and the absence of effective communication platforms (technical and social). These challenges result in varied perceptions of risk and safety across different diving groups, and consequently, how to manage them.
Numerous learning opportunities are hidden from the diving community because of the socio-technical barriers present; barriers which have been recognised in other domains and where work has been done to dismantle them using the principles and tools from the sciences of human factors and system safety. The application of these tools and principles in domains such as aviation and healthcare have enabled the telling and sharing of context-rich stories surrounding both adverse events and positive outcomes, thereby leading to increased organisational and individual learning and safety. Given that safety is an emergent property of the system, these findings advocate for a similar integration of human factors and system safety principles into the sports diving domain, cognisant that the sport is, in the main, unregulated and is discretionary in nature. The thesis proposes a shift from a blame-focused culture to a learning-oriented culture, emphasising the necessity of creating a safe environment for divers to share their stories through the development of a Just Culture. This shift is crucial for enhancing safety practices through shared learning. Those responsible for the shift are leaders within the industry – not just those in organisational leadership positions, but also those who are role models in the ‘fun’ diving and exploration space.
The research contributes substantially to the domain of diving safety by promoting a systemic approach to safety in SCUBA diving, recognising the interdependence of organisational and cultural factors, and the critical factors associated with the telling and sharing of a context-rich story. It emphasises the potential of storytelling as a key tool for learning and safety improvement, advocating for a cultural and organisational change towards openness, learning, and resilience in not just diving, but also other high-risk leisure activities.}},
author = {{Lock, Gareth}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Storytelling to Learn: What happens underwater, stays underwater.}},
year = {{2024}},
}