This episode explores why people in diving often don’t speak up, even when something feels unsafe, and why being “heard” matters just as much as being allowed to talk. Using a real boat-diving story, it shows how authority gaps, hero culture, social media status, and tight-knit groups can silence both new and experienced divers. Research highlights that people stay quiet mainly because they fear looking bad or upsetting others, not because they lack knowledge. Titles, reputation, and tribal loyalty can make unsafe decisions hard to challenge, while weak feedback systems hide problems rather than fix them. The key message is that safety depends on leaders actively creating spaces where speaking up is worthwhile, not risky, by listening with curiosity, lowering power barriers, valuing informal conversations, and rewarding honesty over conformity. In diving, real learning starts when people feel they belong, can question decisions, and know their voice will truly be heard.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-leadership-creating-the-space-for-others-to-be-heard

Links: One of the studies by Reitz

Gareth’s MSc research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRXqeQvRFK0&t=4s

Linnea Mills case

Brian Bugge case

Tags: - english gareth lock instructors leadership psychological safety top tips

This episode looks at what happens when a dive “team” isn’t really functioning as a team, using a real training story where strong individual skills weren’t enough to prevent things going wrong under stress. The key lesson is that the problem wasn’t technical ability, but poor teamwork: misaligned goals, weak communication, low trust, and a lack of shared awareness. Research shows that what really makes teams perform well is not personality, confidence, or experience, but social intelligence – the ability to read others, notice stress or confusion, ask good questions, and adapt when plans change. These team skills matter just as much as buoyancy, gas planning, or drills, especially in demanding environments like technical diving. The episode explains why teamwork must be taught and practised deliberately, not assumed, and offers practical ideas for instructors and divers: train teamwork on purpose, model good team behaviour, debrief the whole team, pay attention to emotional cues, and redefine success as how well the team worked together under pressure. In short, safe and effective diving depends on strong teams, not just strong individuals.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-teamwork

Links: Team Players: How Social Skills Improve Team Performance study by Ben Weidmann and David Deming

More 'Top Tips for Diving Instructors' blogs

Guy’s blog about teaching teamwork: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/HF_Into_Archaeology

DEBrIEF model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debrief

Tags: - english communication gareth lock instructors teamwork top tips

This episode explains why the diving industry struggles to learn from fatalities and argues that the problem is not one bad decision or one person, but the whole system. Using the death of 18-year-old diver Linnea Mills as an example, it shows how normal people, doing what made sense at the time, can be caught by gaps in training, supervision, equipment, communication, and emergency planning. The focus is on moving beyond neat, blame-based “first stories” and instead telling messier “second stories” that explore context, pressure, trade-offs, and gradual drift away from safety margins. The episode looks at ideas like normalisation of deviance, weak feedback loops, authority gradients, and the gap between what rules say should happen and what really happens on dives. The key message is that safety improves when we change conditions, not just criticise people: by building psychological safety, matching supervision to the real task, checking equipment properly, planning for emergencies that fit the location, learning from near misses, and raising standards above the bare minimum. Learning from tragedy requires courage, honest stories, and system-level change, but it is possible—and it starts before the next dive.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/we-don-t-learn-from-diving-fatalities-and-here-s-why

Links: Webinar about Linnea Mills: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu4tc8gtNio&t=3s

No learning focused investigation process in diving: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/learning-reviews-in-diving

Compliance can give an illusion of safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhmxz2_adc

What conditions made it harder to do the ‘right’ thing and easier to do the ‘wrong’ thing?

Creating the conditions and space for speaking up: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-leadership-creating-the-space-for-others-to-be-heard

Having difficult conversations as an instructor: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-communication-the-difficult-kind

TEDS open question acronym: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/communications-ask-better-questions

Psychological safety blogs: Blog 1. Blog 2. Blog 3. Blog 4. Blog 5.

Debrief model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debrief

Diving Talks video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhmxz2_adc

Child welfare changes: https://www.collaborative-safety.com/collaborative-safety-reading-packet

Tags: - english gareth lock safety safety culture system safety

Many dive instructors are facing a growing challenge: some students believe that paying for a course means they are guaranteed a certification card. This can lead to difficult conversations when an instructor decides a student needs more time to reach a safe and confident level, even if they attended all sessions and tried hard. This episode explores why clear communication is essential, especially before a course begins, so students understand that they are paying for training, not an automatic qualification. It explains the importance of describing why standards exist, using kind and supportive language, staying firm but empathetic, and normalising the idea that people learn at different speeds. By setting expectations early, explaining decisions clearly, and being honest and caring in tough moments, instructors can protect safety, maintain trust, and help students see certification as something earned through readiness, not something bought.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-diving-instructors-communication-the-difficult-kind

Tags: - english communication instructors mike mason

This episode explores how the diving community responds when something goes badly wrong and why the choice between blame and learning really matters. Drawing on three university research projects, it explains that after serious incidents people look for meaning through justice, learning, and sometimes punishment, and that visible learning can itself be a form of justice. The episode looks at why divers often struggle to share honest stories about near misses and accidents, including fear of judgment, legal worries, and online criticism, and why sharing clear, context-rich stories is essential for real safety improvement. It also explains that accountability is not just about finding fault but about choosing fair, forward-looking ways to improve systems, training, and teamwork. The key message is that diving becomes safer when we replace silence and scapegoating with open storytelling, curiosity, and accountability that focuses on learning and change rather than blame.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/asking-why-telling-stories-and-owning-accountability-lessons-for-diving

Links: The three theses: Møller (2023), Lock (2024), Parris (2025)

Summary of Lock’s thesis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRXqeQvRFK0&t=3s

Changing the language to help learning: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/change-your-language-change-the-world

DEBrIEF model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debrief

The documentaries ‘If Only…’ and ‘Just a Routine Operation’

Tags: English, Gareth Lock, Incident Reporting, Just Culture, Psychological Safety

This episode looks at how many decisions can happen during a single dive and why decision-making is often harder underwater, especially for new divers. Using a real-world wreck dive story, it shows how focus on a goal, strong currents, stress, and missed checks can slowly lead to poor outcomes, even when basic skills are sound. The discussion explains how pressure, mental overload, common thinking biases, limited experience, and social influences can affect the choices divers make without them realising it. It also introduces simple, practical tools—like clear dive plans with decision points, pausing to reassess when stressed, regular scanning of key information, and honest post-dive debriefs—to help divers recognise problems earlier and make safer decisions. The key message is that good decisions are a skill that can be learned, and every dive is a chance to improve judgment and dive more safely.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-decision-making

Tags: English, Beginners, Cognitive Biases, Decision Making, Gareth Lock

In this episode, we explore situation awareness, a key skill that helps divers notice what’s happening around them, understand what it means, and anticipate what might happen next. Using a personal story from a first open water dive, we show how beginners often rely on instructors to manage the “big picture” and don’t realise how much awareness is needed until they dive on their own. The episode explains why situation awareness is harder for new divers, introduces the simple three-step model of perception, understanding, and prediction, and shares practical tips to build this skill from the very start, such as good dive briefings, clear communication, staying curious, managing stress, and learning from debriefs. The key message is that situation awareness is a skill anyone can develop, and improving it makes diving safer, calmer, and more enjoyable.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-situation-awareness

Links: Blog about dive briefings: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/Why%20are%20dive%20briefings%20important%3F%20How%20to%20deliver%20them%20effectively

Blog about debriefing: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/debriefing-a-challenging-dive-a-real-life-experience

Blog about communication: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-communication

Tags: English, Beginners, Mike Mason, Situation Awareness, Situational Awareness

In this episode, we follow Paul, a diver who joins an unfamiliar group and stays silent when he feels unsure, leading to stress, separation from the team, and a risky situation underwater. His story shows how being part of a group doesn’t automatically mean being part of a team, especially when people don’t feel comfortable asking questions or speaking up. We explore the ideas of psychological safety and just culture, and why they matter in diving, so that everyone can raise concerns, admit mistakes, and learn without fear of blame or embarrassment. The episode also shares practical ways divers can support each other, encourage open communication, and challenge unsafe behaviour, helping teams become safer, stronger, and better together.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-psychological-safety-just-culture

Links: Blog about Performance Influencing Factors: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-performance-influencing-factors

Tags: English, Beginners, Just Culture, Pedro Paulo Cunha, Psychological Safety, Teamwork

This episode looks at Ellie’s first overseas dive trip, where she discovered that being “ready” on paper doesn’t always mean performing well in real life. Even though she knew her skills, a rushed boat, unexpected changes, stress, and small mistakes left her overwhelmed and unsure underwater. We use her experience to explore why divers don’t always act the way they intend, using the WITH/TWIN model to explain how the environment, individual limits, task load, and human nature all shape performance. You’ll hear practical tools for managing stress, spotting error traps, asking better pre-dive questions, and debriefing the human side of a dive. The message is simple: safe diving isn’t just about technical skills — it’s about understanding what affects your performance so you can learn, adapt, and be better than yesterday.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-performance-influencing-factors

Links: HALT: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/stress-a-challenge-we-all-face

PACE model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/navigating-the-authority-gradient-pt2

SBAR model: https://www.ihi.org/library/tools/sbar-tool-situation-background-assessment-recommendation

Debrief model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debrief

Tags: English, Beginners, Gareth Lock, Performance Influencing Factors

This episode explores what happened when an inexperienced diver, John, assumed he was “just meant to follow” his far more experienced buddy, Shona- and how a simple sea dive turned stressful when expectations weren’t shared. Their miscommunication shows that good teamwork in diving isn’t automatic: leaders need to notice when teammates are struggling, and followers need to speak up, ask questions, and stay involved in the plan. We look at how beginners can build both leadership and followership from day one through curiosity, clear expectations, simple pre-dive questions, and short debriefs. The story highlights that safe, enjoyable dives come from shared mental models, mutual accountability, and the courage to communicate- no matter how new you are.

Original blog: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-leadership-and-followership

Links: Debrief model: https://www.thehumandiver.com/debrief

Top Tips for Beginner Divers- Teamwork: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/top-tips-for-beginner-divers-teamwork

Dive briefings: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/Why%20are%20dive%20briefings%20important%3F%20How%20to%20deliver%20them%20effectively

Psychological safety: https://www.thehumandiver.com/blog/HFforD-part-10-psychological-safety

Tags: English, Beginners, Communications, Followership, Gareth Lock, Leadership, Teamwork