Mindfulness – it’s a term that’s been used a lot in the past few years – and as Dr. Benjamin Goodheart, founder and principle consultant at Magpie Human Safety Systems, explains in this edition of the AviationPros Podcast, it’s one that ground handlers, and workers across all industries, should take to heart. 

“Mindfulness, it can be a polarizing term,” Goodheart said. “I use the term, honestly, because I don’t know another one that works better to describe what we’re trying to do.”

Goodheart gives the example of how to employ mindfulness when training a new employee on a towbarless tow tractor. The training supervisor can point out some things ahead of time that the trainee needs to devote their attention to and channel their focus during training.

“That purposeful application of attention is mindfulness,” Goodheart said. “Mindfulness is a specific set of tools for the purposeful channeling of attention. It means rather than paying attention to everything all the time, that I’m able to pick and choose.”

It speaks to one of Goodheart’s overarching arguments – that it is important to work within the confines of human biology and not against them. As Goodheart explains, it is impossible for a person to be paying attention to everything at all times; biology forces people to lose focus while working and shift their concentration elsewhere.

“The idea that our mind needs a bit of rest is a biological necessity. It’s a balance of our nervous system,” Goodheart added.

By employing mindfulness practices on the job that work with human biology, such as point and speak – which forces the mind to work only as fast as a person can talk – workers can stay focused on the critical details of the task at hand, stave off complacency and avert potential disaster.

Goodheart said that, for example, before towing an aircraft, a crew might do a pre-brief, going over the type of aircraft, its unique factors and how those factors might playout during the operation on the ramp. This way everyone involved is on the same page and knows what to be watching for.

“And we get that shared mental model together and we got some tools for, again, being mindful,” Goodheart added.

To listen to Goodheart’s full conversation with Ground Support Worldwide editor Josh Smith on how to incorporate mindfulness practices into an operation, visit AviationPros.com/21158444