Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

7.5 LOFT Debriefing - Introduction

The LOFT debriefing must be properly introduced to the trainees ("BRIEF THE DEBRIEFING") in order to ensure the highest possible level of trainee motivation and participation, which will have a direct bearing on achievement of the training objectives for the LOFT session. A LOFT debrief that opens cold (without re-establishing the contract that was set at the 6.7 LOFT Briefing - Suggested Format and Contents) tends to revert to instructor-centred lecture by default, because the trainees do not know what shape their participation is supposed to take.

What the trainees need to be advised of

The trainees need to be advised of:

  • The roles and expectations for all participants (the trainees themselves and the instructor).
  • How they are going to be expected to participate in the debriefing.
  • The fact that the content and conduct of the debriefing is their responsibility.
  • The role of the instructor during the debriefing.

The four points above are the minimum content of the LOFT debriefing introduction. The trainees should leave the introduction knowing what shape their participation is supposed to take, who is responsible for what, and why the debriefing is structured this way.

7.5.1 Contents of Introduction

The Contents of Introduction sets out the content of the introduction in detail. The introduction is structured around four blocks: the role of the instructor, the role of the trainees, the rationale for a crew-centred briefing, and the closing reminders.

Roles of the instructor

The instructor is to:

  • Assist in developing the agenda for discussion:
    • This is primarily a trainee responsibility to identify the events and issues that they want to talk about.
    • Instructor will ensure that all trainees actually participate in this process.
  • Facilitate crew discussion as required.
  • Act as a resource on CRM and technical issues to assist trainees in their discussion.
  • Will aim to keep discussions centred on topics the trainees think are interesting, rather than deviate onto things the instructor wants to talk about.
  • Will ensure that all specified training objectives are met.

The instructor's job in the LOFT debrief is therefore not to deliver a verdict and walk the trainees through it; it is to assist, facilitate, resource, focus, and ensure objectives are met. The verb stack is deliberately non-directive: the trainees lead the analysis, and the instructor's contribution is the structure that lets them lead it well.

Role of the trainees

The trainees are to:

  • Develop the agenda for discussion:
    • Identify the events and issues they think are important and want to talk about.
    • Remind them that they should feel free to discuss any other topics that may arise during the debriefing if they consider them important.
  • Direct their discussion to each other as much as possible, and not to just address the instructor.
  • Focus discussion on the CRM skills that were used, or could have been used to help them during the LOFT.
  • Analyse in depth what happened during the session, and what they did about managing the situations.
  • Evaluate the outcomes.
  • Discuss what they might do differently and why.

The "direct their discussion to each other" requirement is the operationally hardest of the trainee-side requirements. Trainees default to treating the debrief as an audience with the instructor; the introduction's job is to set the expectation that the conversation runs across the trainees, with the instructor as one resource among several, and the introduction has to set that expectation explicitly because the default is the opposite.

Explain the rationale for a crew-centred briefing

The introduction should explain why the debriefing is being conducted this way:

  • Trainees learn more effectively by a process of self-discovery and self-analysis, rather than by being lectured to by an instructor.
  • This approach builds upon the natural motivation of professionally-qualified trainees to perform well and to learn from experience.
  • Knowledge that is gained in this fashion is more likely to be carried over to the line environment.
  • Also encourages crews to apply the same techniques to analyse situations that arose on the line, and to determine how they used their risk management resources to manage those situations, and whether it could be done any better the next time.

Re-assure on confidentiality

Re-assure the trainees that what is discussed during the debrief will remain STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL. The just-culture commitment is what makes the rest of the introduction credible: trainees who suspect that their candid analysis will be used against them will not give candid analysis.

Conclusion

The introduction closes with three move-out items.

Questions

Expectations

Invite the trainees to express any expectations they may have for the session. Do not try to drag this out of trainees if they are hesitant: this is the normal situation for trainees with little or no experience of LOFT. However, expectations expressed prior to the session can be a useful tool for the instructor to use to promote discussion during the debrief ("Did this go as you expected? Why not?").

The three golden rules of effective CRM

It can be useful at this point, particularly for pilots with little or no experience of LOFT, for the instructor to state the three golden rules for effective CRM:

The triple emphasis is in the source. Communication is the single CRM behaviour that, if absent, defeats the rest of the CRM toolkit; the introduction's repetition is a deliberate signal of relative weight.

Final reminders

Conclude the brief by re-stating that LOFT is a non-jeopardy training event, and invite the trainees to enjoy the session. The non-jeopardy framing is the operational consequence of the just-culture commitment: a LOFT used as a checking event reverts to a checking debrief, the trainees revert to image-management, and the diagnostic value of the LOFT collapses.

For more detailed information on how to conduct LOFT debriefings, see A1.1 Foreword and Introduction (the Flight Safety Foundation reproduction of NASA Technical Memorandum 112192 by McDonnell, Jobe, and Dismukes, 1997).

The 9-step EBT debrief sequence

The LOFT debriefing introduced above is the technique frame; the EBT-specific operational sequence the recurrent EBT debrief follows is set out in A4.2.5 Conduct of Debriefing and reproduced here for cross-reference. The two are not in conflict: the LOFT debriefing introduction frames the contract reset; the 9-step sequence below sets out the order of operations through the rest of the debrief in an EBT context.

The 5-minute pause is operationally load-bearing: an instructor who walks straight from the simulator into the debriefing room without that gap arrives without a structured assessment, and the debrief defaults to free recall rather than competency-anchored analysis.

The cited-evidence formula (grade → missing performance indicator → concrete example from the session) is what makes a low grade defensible rather than felt as opinion; it is also what makes the trainee's path to remediation specific rather than abstract.

The 2-3-outcome cap is a deliberate constraint that mirrors the 7.4 Specific Debrief Scenarios "three main points" rule and the FSF / NASA "3 to 6 segments" video-discipline rule. Concentration of effort on a small number of high-leverage outcomes outperforms a complete tour of every event in the session.

The trainee's articulation of their own learning is the verification step that the rest of the debrief was effective; if a trainee cannot summarise the learning, the learning has not been produced and the rest of the sequence has been ceremonial.

The reciprocal-feedback step is a deliberate inversion of the authority gradient. An instructor who solicits feedback on their own facilitation models the self-analysis discipline they have just asked the trainees to apply, and creates the empirical input that lets the instructor's own facilitation skills improve over a recurrent cycle.

Reading the LOFT debriefing alongside the 9-step sequence

The LOFT debriefing introduction frames how the debrief opens (the introduction; the contract reset; the three CRM golden rules; the non-jeopardy framing). The 9-step sequence frames how the debrief proceeds from there (the 5-minute prepare; the outcome announcement; the cited-evidence rationale for any below-level-2 grade; the trainee-led identification of what they did well; the crew-level facilitated discussion of 2-3 root-cause learning outcomes; the trainee-articulated summary; the instructor self-debrief). The two are designed to be read in sequence: the LOFT debriefing introduction is the door to the debriefing room; the 9 steps are the operations inside it.

The deeper facilitation discipline (the levels of facilitation, the question patterns, the silence strategy, the active-listening forms, the video discipline, the C-A-L organising frame) sits in A1.1 Foreword and Introduction and is referenced from 7.3 General Debrief Techniques and 7.4 Specific Debrief Scenarios. The 5-category facilitation rubric used to score instructor performance against this framework lives in A3.1 Purpose and Directions.

Connections

  • 7.1 Introduction. Frames aim, environments, and training-not-checking posture within which this LOFT debriefing treatment sits.
  • 7.3 General Debrief Techniques. The toolkit (questions, silence, active listening, video, C-A-L) the LOFT debrief operationalises.
  • 7.4 Specific Debrief Scenarios. The synthetic-flight treatment that introduces the simulator-specific constraints the LOFT-specific section deepens.
  • 6.7 LOFT Briefing - Suggested Format and Contents. The pre-session contract this section's introduction re-establishes.
  • A1.1 Foreword and Introduction. The Flight Safety Foundation / NASA upstream the "for more detailed information" pointer leads to.
  • A3.1 Purpose and Directions. The 5 × 4 × 5 rubric used to score instructor facilitation against the techniques described here.
  • A4.2.5 Conduct of Debriefing. The 9-step EBT-specific debrief sequence reproduced in this section.
  • C-A-L model. The CRM / Analysis / Line-operations frame the debrief organises around.
  • CRM. The set of techniques the LOFT exists to develop and the 9-step sequence anchors low-grade evidence to.
  • Core competencies. The framework against which the 9-step sequence's grading and the cited-evidence step assess performance.
  • Behavioural indicators. The observable performance markers the cited-evidence step (Step 3) and the competency-reference work (Steps 1, 6, 7) anchor low grades to.
  • EBT. The methodology the 9-step sequence implements; the LOFT debriefing in this section is the recurrent EBT module's principal pedagogical event.
  • LOFT. The simulator scenario type this section is built around.
  • Facilitation. The primary instructional technique the section's "facilitator, not lecturer" rule depends on.