Seaways All hands on tech - October 2026
Are we managing change or mandating it?
by Capt Ann Pletschke CMMar FNI, STEER Project Manager
‘Apply Management of Change processes before and after installing new technology, to assess the impact on workload, competence and procedures.’
A simple recommendation from the newly released Initial Report for the STEER Project, but not so simple in practice. Most companies plan for technology implementation to some degree. But six months later, does anyone think to complete the feedback loop and ask whether the technology is actually being used as intended, and whether it is useful?
If the change does not work as intended, what happens is all too often ‘adaptive use,’ where crew quietly build a workaround the week after installation.
It is precisely this gap between installing technology and managing the change it creates where seafarers have expressed themselves most powerfully to the STEER project.
A Management of Change process should ask how a new system might add workload, duplication, distraction or complication, not just what the sales pitch promises. It should look at whether the proposed change is the right technology, with the right interfaces and the right connections to existing equipment. The wrong integration, however well intentioned, risks adding yet another screen to monitor, more data to input or another alarm to silence.
Implementing new technology should not just be about installing the systems, but also about establishing what users need to be confident, effective and safe. Assessing competence after installation means checking that training has actually translated into confident, correct use ‘as imagined’. It means giving crew the time to familiarise themselves properly, and then learning from them how familiarisation can be made easier for the next users, including on-the-job mentoring. Updating the SMS, checklists and amending handover routines should not purely be paperwork for its own sake but should fully support effective daily use.
Management commitment is vital to ensure technology implementation is endorsed from the top down. So, too, is communicating effectively so it is understood and endorsed from the bottom up. Those communications don’t just happen by chance. They can best be supported with ‘boots on the deck’ visits, sharing details not just about the technology, but why it is being implemented, and the expected benefits, and genuinely embracing feedback from the fleet.
When your ship or fleet last introduced a significant new system, was there ever a formal review of how it affected workload, competence and procedures? The STEER Project would love to hear your feedback.
If your company has a Management of Change process that has an active feedback loop, we would like to hear about it. If it does not, we would like to hear about that, too! Contact us at STEER@nautinst.org
Finally, if you have not yet completed the #ListeningToSeafarers survey, please take five minutes to do so. We are creating tools to help seafarers and support safe maritime operations – and the more real-life experiences we have to draw on, the better we can do this.
Join the conversation at www.steer-project.org, or write to us at steer@nautinst.org, as we continue to #ListenToSeafarers.