Stanislav Vojtíšek is a former captain of one of the world's most prestigious airlines, Turkish Airlines. As a commercial pilot, he worked since the mid-90s, flying various aircraft types, including the Airbus A330 and Boeing.
Today, he focuses on soft skills training, with an emphasis on communication, leadership, decision-making, assertiveness, and stress management. He also serves as a mentor and consultant for various projects.
What was your journey from being a commercial pilot to becoming a lecturer and mentor?
One could say I was a lecturer and educator before becoming a professional pilot. Before starting my aviation career, I worked for several years in foreign news at Czech Television. Since the mid-90s, I've been involved in lecturing focused on communication. As an external lecturer, I also taught at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. At that time, I was primarily interested in media communication. Over time, I expanded the topics to include assertive and effective communication and other related disciplines, which I still teach as a trainer. When I started flying, I realized that the skills needed for a safe flight also apply well to the non-aviation world.
Can you provide an example?
Certainly, a favorite method in workshops is the acronym F.O.R.D.E.C. It is a process used in aviation for decision-making. It involves assessing the situation and then finding safe priority solutions. Acronyms are easier to remember than specific actions. F.O.R.D.E.C. includes a real assessment of the situation (Facts), exploring possible options (Options), evaluating the risks and benefits of each option (Risk and Benefits), deciding on one of the options (Decision), executing it (Execution), and finally checking (Check).
That sounds quite straightforward.
I acknowledge that this process may seem almost banal. But it has saved many lives. It allows practicing a variety of skills. It's a team game. Everyone on "board" can and should contribute to finding a solution together. The captain is the leader who moderates it and takes responsibility for the final decision with authority. F.O.R.D.E.C. has proven effective for managers in quick and efficient decision-making in crisis situations. In essence, it's similar to comparing a flight to a project – you'll be monitoring where you're going, the conditions there, whether you have a suitable machine, enough fuel, and a well-qualified team.
Flying is the safest mode of travel. What, in your opinion, are the key areas of this success?
It's primarily about genuine and effective leadership, well-managed decision-making processes and prioritization, eliminating irreversible errors, and stress management. The ability to communicate effectively is essential. Automation also plays an important role.
These are classic topics for soft skills training. However, you integrate your experiences from the aviation world into them. What other areas do you train as a lecturer?
In professions where you must take absolute responsibility for your decisions, be able to decide quickly and correctly, make minimal errors, there is a whole range of them. In my lecturing practice, I have worked with doctors, nuclear reactor operators, top managers. I gradually expanded the topics to include safety, standardization of procedures, selecting suitable candidates, their training, or maintaining quality.
What training generates the most interest?
Interest is fairly evenly distributed. Recently, there has been an increased demand for the automation of processes and interfaces, where automation has reached its maximum, and now human creative solutions are sought. There is also a great interest in team exercises using the aircraft cabin simulator.
What specific skills and knowledge from aviation do you integrate into team exercises?
It's essentially team building. In the aircraft fuselage simulator, the leader and their team deal with various stressful situations. We also evaluate pre-defined competencies of participants. The exercises include simulations of emergencies on board, which always end with evacuating the space through slides or over the wing. In the simulator, we can smoke the cabin, practice firefighting, and create an authentic atmosphere with noise, passenger cries, and flames outside the windows. It's challenging but also a popular and beneficial exercise.
Automation is increasingly taking over routine tasks, not only in aviation. What does this new situation bring?
We face a new challenge. Automation works without stress, precisely and to some extent autonomously. We become operators who react to system signals. Either we monitor that the system is functioning correctly or perform an action at its request. But there is still a space where we must be the authority – take manual control, set the sequence of actions, and decide how we will proceed once the problematic situation is resolved. Or the system may work but in a degraded mode, bringing a completely different situation. In this phase, creativity is needed, searching for alternatives and adapting to limitations. Often, errors such as emotional reactions or shortcuts appear in this phase. That's why aircraft manufacturers today try to minimize procedures that people must perform from memory. And when it does happen, various acronyms are used.
What do participants in your courses appreciate?
Participants appreciate the inspiration from aviation and the relative simplicity and functionality of the procedures. They are often surprised that in the cockpit, most things do not happen in seconds, unlike in movies. It's essential not to rush and carefully consider each step in light of priorities and consequences. Situations requiring an immediate response are genuinely rare. In workshops, I focus on interactivity, and we often discuss various sample situations. The goal is to develop the ability to make the right managerial or independent decisions. Participants present their solutions, and during the analysis, we discover weaknesses or mistakes. This is where it becomes evident how some models from aviation can make decision-making simpler and safer.
Can you share a simulation scenario you use? Do you have a funny experience from training?
One exercise is designed for NASA astronauts after landing on the Moon, and another simulates an engine failure during a flight over the Atlantic. The goal is not to find the right "aviation" solution but rather a logical and safe decision. Participants often come up with very amusing scenarios. For example, when landing on the Moon, they prioritize matches to light up, even though it's impossible due to the atmosphere's composition. During a flight over the Atlantic, they may suggest the least suitable airport (the farthest and with bad weather) with the argument that they serve good beer there, which the captain likes.
Thank you, Stando, for the interview.
