Tärntank Ship Management AB, an award winning tanker shipping company, has invited ALL Academy to their annual in-house Officer’s Meeting on January 28, 2016 at the Tärntank Manila Office in Makati, Philippines. A one-day course was facilitated by ALL Academy which focused on “Challenge and Response”, one of the vital concepts/teachings in the MRM Programme. Tärntank has a very good mix of officers and crew coming from the Philippines, East Europe and Scandinavia. Therefore with the mixed cultures working together onboard, comes a need to establish an open communication where they can challenge each other and respond to challenges positively in order to increase safety. Accident reports often show that making challenges and responding to them is a major weakness in communication. In some cultures, people are sometimes uncomfortable in questioning or challenging a superior’s decision and tend to just keep it to themselves even if they should have challenged his/her superior who committed an error.
As Tärntank aims to constantly improve its vessels and to ensure that all its employees can work safely and effectively, seminars and conferences are frequently organized by the company to equip its employees with necessary soft-skills trainings such as the MRM programme.
The objective of the course is to help the participants recognise the importance of establishing a Challenge and Response environment onboard to increase safety and also to help them recognise that the whole team is involved in Challenge and Response. There was a good interaction among the participants where they shared their own experiences and also they were able to learn from their colleagues’ perspective on challenge and response. In attendance were Filipino officers, crewing staff from the local office, and also Dick Höglund (Financial Manager), Niklas Johansson (Personnel Manager) and Artis Ozols (Safety Manager) all 3 coming from their headquarters in Sweden.
Tärntank’s Personnel Manager, Niklas Johansson, gives a short introduction just before the seminar started. (In the photo are: Artis Ozols and Martin Hernqvist).
Participants and the facilitator listen while one of the officers shares his opinion during the open forum.
Tärntank Officers and Shore Side Staff from Sweden gathered for a group photo with Martin Hernqvist from ALL Academy.
ALL Academy’s Martin Hernqvist together with Tärntank’s Shore Side Managers, Artis Ozols (Safety), Dick Höglund (Financial) and Niklas Johansson (Personnel) enjoy a casual discussion after the seminar was over.