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PROFESSIONALISM 42 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016 AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY WHEN IT COMES TO TRAINING, IS IT really technology or people we should be concerned about? Training has always been the backbone of the aviation and aerospace industries, technical training that is. When it comes to core human interaction skills training, or "soft skills training" the industry lags behind other service providers such as the hotel and restaurant industries. The business world continues on the path of technological advancement. The pace is fast and furious. Everywhere we look, there are rapidly occurring improve- ments. However, are we ultimately forget- ting that people are the targeted benefi- ciary of these wonderful advancements in technology? After all, we the people should be reaping the benefits of these remark- able technical achievements; but are we? Are we able to keep up with the pace of change in technological advances while maintaining our interactions with people? ServiceElements came onto the scene in 2003 after its founders recognized that a need was not being served in business and general aviation. Aviation profession- als were getting all the technical and pro- cedural recurrent training that they needed to keep flying, fueling, maintaining, dis- patching, and serving business aircraft and their passengers. However, many of the aircraft passengers and principals at flight departments, FBOs, maintenance shops, aircraft manufacturers, charter compa- nies, fractionals, etc. drove the demand for improved service and communication skills from the aviation professionals. Soon it became evident that human factors are also an important element in air safety and service. Aviation professionals had the technical and procedural knowledge when it came to the operation of aircraft, but they struggled when it came to dealing with passengers, customers, and their own team members. These "people issues" are the cause for much conflict, drama, and safety challenges in the workplace. PEOPLE ISSUES Communication is imperative in any ser- vice organization or any human relation- ship. Effective communication is not only active listening or the ability to articulate well. Communication is successful when the person sending the communication and the person(s) receiving it come to a mutual understanding. In order for the service interaction to be successful, the expectations of both internal and exter- nal customers must be understood and met — at the very least — or exceeded. Maintenance professionals will sometimes say, "I don't deal with the customers. I just fix airplanes." However, this is not the case anymore. Everyone has customers to deal with — whether the customers are external customers or internal team members. Communication and interaction skills between both internal and external customers are essential to a successful ser- vice organization or company, to a success- ful team, and to successful individuals. The fact that we are losing a lot of great experience in the industry is further com- plicating the human interaction challenges. The vacuum is slowly being filled with new people with very little experience in the industry. In the meantime, the indus- try is also grappling with new and old technologies still in operation. One suggestion is to pay attention to these people issues. Pilots, aircraft techni- cians, schedulers and dispatchers, flight attendants, and others in our organizations do require a broad approach to keeping up with the technology. Aviation professionals need to be able to understand technology's benefits and impact on our respective jobs. Ultimately, we are reiterating what many people have begun to recognize. What we are reinforcing is we need to accelerate the focus on human and people issues. This may require us to change our thinking and approach to people develop- ment and to culture shift in our industry. One simple notion or cultural shift can be: consider safety our No. 1 and the most important service. Achieving this will help us to never allow safety or ser- vice to be mutually exclusive. Safety is the No. 1 service. Sometimes we need to just explain, communicate, and project the real purpose and goals of our work. This will drive us to develop people and our teams to have better responses to overall customer safety vs. customer requests and expectations. WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR AVIATION TRAINING? We need to accelerate the focus on human and people issues By ServiceElements, Christine Hill ServiceElements is a Phoenix- based firm specializing in people- development and customer service training for aviation professionals.