miscommunications and context awareness
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Miscommunications and Context Awareness
Steve Poteet (Boeing, US)Cheryl Giammanco (Army Research Lab, US)
Jitu Patel (Dstl, UK)Anne Kao (Boeing, US)Ping Xue (Boeing, US)
Iya Whiteley (Systems Engineering & Assessment, UK)
International Technology Alliance Conference
September 22-24, 2009
Overall Study Goal
To discover effective ways of minimizing miscommunication and to discover how communication of contextual knowledge can improve mutual understanding during coalition operations.
• Examine and identify categories & patterns of miscommunication due to variations of language use
• Examine and identify categories & patterns of miscommunication due to background and cultural differences
• Examine and identify categories & patterns of miscommunication due to contextual differences in general
Study Aim
• Collect additional data on miscommunication between coalition partners
• Refine our previously identified categories of miscommunication due to variations in language and language use
• Examine and identify categories of contextual knowledge that are essential for successful communication
Omni Fusion 2008
• Distributed, federated simulation based experiment conducted at BCBL and other US Battle Labs (Sept. 03-19, 2008)
• Over 230 participants from US, UK, Australia, and Canada
• Purpose: study division-level issues involving use of the network and network degradation
• Objective: – Determine how commanders use the network to understand,
visualize, describe, direct and assess full spectrum operations– How commanders do so if network is degraded or absent
Research Design
• Participants• ABCA (America-Britain-Canada-Australia) military personnel
who were participants of Omni Fusion 2008 Simulation Exercise (OF08 SIMEX) at the Battle Command Battle Laboratory (BCBL) in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, US
• Participation is completely voluntary
• Method of Data Capture• Questionnaires distributed to them during the exercise – 116
responses• One hour follow-up interviews with 4
• Questions Asked• Nature & source of the miscommunication• When it was identified • The effect of the miscommunication on performance• How and when it was resolved
Miscommunications Reported
• 14 reported one or more– 1 reported more than 3– 5 reported 2 or 3– 8 reported 1
• Most common medium– Email (7), VOIP/Audio (5), IWS/Chat (4), face-to-face
(4)• Most miscommunications were identified
immediately• Most problems were resolved in a few minutes,
but 2 took a few hours and 1 was not resolved until end of the day
Additional Survey Results
• Type of Impacts on Miscommunications– 27 responses– 22%: loss of efficient use of time– 22%: loss of accuracy (increase in human error)– 19%: loss of situation awareness
• Non-linguistic factors of miscommunication– 23 responses– 29%: lack of a Common Operational Picture (COP),
and Shared Situation Awareness
Suggested Methods of Prevention
• 22 responses
• 32%: use a standardized language (e.g. NATO or DoD dictionary) would help
• 27%: multinational combined training prior to operations, exercises or experiments
• Sample is too small to draw conclusions
New Evidence Supporting Prior Hypotheses
• Standard terminology not used– UK used NATO and US used CENTCOM
• While basic concepts were shared, they are often expressed in different terminology
• E.g. acronyms, jargon, slang
• Acronym use caused confusion– More ambiguous because the length is shorter– E.g. AI (Air Interdiction) was mis-typed as IA
(Influence Activities – e.g. PsyOps – in UK, or Information Operations in US)
– E.g. NGO (Non-Governmental Organizations) was mistook to mean OGA (other [non-military] government organizations
More on Jargon and Slang
• Besides US-UK differences, these were compounded by different uses in Navy, Marine etc.
• E.g. “leaving 16 and a buff” was not understood – Means B52 for US Air Force
• E.g. “coming in hot”– To Air Force: coming in fast– To ground force: coming in shooting
• E.g. Commander said “burn the brief”– Burn it on the CD, not set it on fire
New Findings
• Important to look at miscommunication in ‘context’
• Crucial to have a shared common understanding of the ‘context’
• In a network centric environment, use of language must take on a bigger role in establishing and maintaining shared context or common ground
Examples of Context in Iraq War
• 1st pilot talked to controller about one group, and controller confirmed it was hostile
• Controller broke off radio contact• 2nd pilot spotted another group of friendly
vehicles and spoke to 1st pilot about it; controller did not know
• Controller came back, 1st pilot asked to confirm if there is friendly force there (referring to 2nd group); controller thought he was referring to the 1st group and said no
• A fatality occurred as a result
US - UK Team Communication Differences
• Differences in language and language use
• Differences in concepts including differences in doctrine and conceptual mismatch
• Differences in procedures such as planning process
• Differences in organization structure
Potential Mitigation Strategies for Coalition Miscommunication
• Multinational combined training prior to operations– The more people work together, the more they
understand each other• Cultural awareness and communication training
– Encourage questions– Be aware of the interlocutor’s context
• Standardized terminology– Only with limited use in certain situations
• Glossaries and other communication tools– Electronic tools will be useful in some situations
More Study of Context
• What major contextual elements are critical to communication during coalition operations
• How do these elements interact with the use of language to contribute to successful communication or lead to miscommunication
• How can knowledge of these contextual elements can be captured and provided before an operation, such as in training or in the form of information tools.
Summary
• Confirmation of previous findings
• Importance of context and shared context awareness in understanding
• Potential strategies for minimizing miscommunications
Questions or Comments?
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