Dr Margaret Crichton, industrial psychologist and managing director of People Factor Consultants, has been selected to serve on the highly-esteemed Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Distinguished Lecturer Programme.
Nominated by their peers, SPE Distinguished Lecturers are selected by committee, with appointments based upon quality, topicality and relevance of presentations.
Appointed in recognition of her expertise and professional achievements in the Human Factors field and following a presentation to the selection committee on “Operational Decision Making – what makes a decision good?”, Dr Crichton will join a select group of just 30 international experts, chosen to share their knowledge and expertise with SPE members through visits to local sections across the globe during 2017/18.
Commenting on her appointment, she said: “I am delighted to have been nominated as an SPE Distinguished Lecturer. Safety is always the highest priority within the upstream industry and I believe that non-technical skills – i.e. the Human Factors - such as decision making, stress management and situation awareness are crucial to that safety culture.
“Good decision making and optimum situation awareness affects every single one of us, whatever our role, and it is the all-encompassing, accessible nature of the topic that I hope will appeal to SPE sections around the world.”
In her role at PFC, chartered psychologist Dr Crichton works primarily with high hazard organisations to offer global consultancy and training services in non-technical skills, and is widely published in academic and practitioner press.
As providers to a substantial number of the world’s leading oil and gas companies, PFC offers a portfolio of 15 technical and non-technical training courses, many of which are City & Guilds-accredited, as well as providing tailored training and consultancy services to high hazard industries on a worldwide basis. PFC leads the way in ensuring that all industries comprehend the importance of complementary technical and non-technical skills training.