Closed loop communication
Closed loop communication describes a communication strategy that is intended to avoid errors through reconfirmation and to ensure a clear course of action.
This technology originally comes from the military field, where, for example, pilots are required to reconfirm the current action when working through checklists in order to quickly notice errors and counteract them. This redundancy makes it clear whether the instruction was correctly understood and what is currently being executed.
If the instructing person does not receive any feedback, the question must be repeated until the feedback is received. The instructing person must clearly address the recipient by name or unambiguously identify it in some other way in order to prevent redundant work processes or loss of information. The instructions must be clearly worded and the instructor must ensure that the recipient understands the task before assigning further tasks. There is no room for judgmental, personal criticism; feedback in the event of errors must be objective and constructive.
Today, closed loop communication is also used essentially in the non-military, civil area. Particular mention should be made of communication processes in rescue services and emergency medicine, for example communication in emergency situations such as emergency room management . Adherence to the closed loop is essential here in order to avoid errors that could potentially lead to life-threatening results.
Examples
An aircraft is about to begin approaching an airport. A dialog in the cockpit could therefore take place as follows:
Pilot : We're initiating the landing approach. Co-pilot, extend flaps to 30 degrees.
The pilot receives feedback that his instruction has been correctly understood and carried out. A second example shows how to act in the event of an error:
Pilot : Co-pilot, extend flaps to 30 degrees.
Co-pilot : Extend flaps to 3 degrees.
Pilot : Negative! Extend the landing flaps to thirty degrees!
The divergent feedback enabled the pilot to quickly see where the error was and correct it in good time. If the co-pilot had not kept to the closed loop and simply answered "yes" instead, the action would probably have been carried out incorrectly for a longer time without being noticed.