Cognitas is a trading division of Human in the System Consulting Limited; it used to be an entity of its own. The reasons for this change are outlined here. However, fundamentally this does not change the aims of the organisation:
Improve diving safety by challenging current practices and encourage a Just Culture using experience and processes from the aviation and medical industries.
I am passionate about improving diving safety and using experiences and knowledge from my military aviation background to bring some of the behavioural management, organisational structure and Just Culture lessons learned from this environment to sport diving. This is being achieved by active engagement with the diving community through internet fora and diving clubs/conferences identifying ways in which the community can start to modify their attitudes and behaviours towards improved diving safety. Sometimes this is contrary to what the ‘commercial’ arm of the community wants where lack of evidence is cited as lack of a real problem.
In addition to improving the Just Culture within sport diving I have developed and fielded an open and confidential reporting system in the form of the Diving Incident and Safety Management System (DISMS – http://www.divingincidents.org)
“Everyone makes mistakes and divers can learn from others by having an open reporting system”.
Just Culture: It will be impossible to improve safety and capture all the incidents if there is not a ‘Just Culture’ in place, something which allows divers to truly believe that they are helping other divers without the fear of ridicule or disciplinary action (obviously excluding gross negligence).
“A lesson is not learned until you have changed something, or consciously decided not to.”
Cognitas Incident Research & Management 