Train
We design interventions around the operational context, risk profile and role requirements of each client.
Human performance for high-reliability organisations
Mission Performance builds the leadership, culture and operational capability that enable people to perform safely and reliably in high-hazard work.
We build safer, more reliable operations — at scale
In high-reliability industries, performance depends on more than procedures, equipment and technical competence. It depends on how people respond to changing conditions, communicate across boundaries, make decisions under pressure, challenge unsafe assumptions, learn from work and lead others. That is Human Performance. Mission Performance builds the leadership, culture and operational capability that enable people to perform safely and reliably when work is complex, time-critical or high consequence. We combine deep Human Factors and Crew Resource Management expertise with leadership development, coaching, culture change and AI-enabled diagnostics. The result is more than training: it is a practical, measurable and sustainable safety culture. For drilling, energy, decommissioning and other high-hazard operations, Human Performance becomes an operational advantage.
What Human Performance means
Human Performance is an organisation’s ability to create the conditions in which people can do the right thing reliably. People do not work in isolation. Their decisions and behaviours are shaped by leadership, workload, procedures, equipment, competence, supervision, team dynamics and the realities of work at the sharp end.
What a mature approach does
A mature Human Performance approach goes beyond telling people to “be more careful” or adding further compliance requirements. It helps organisations to:
Understand how work is actually done and close the gap between procedures and reality.
Build leadership behaviours that create clarity, trust, accountability and psychological safety.
Strengthen the non-technical skills required in dynamic, high-consequence situations.
Improve anticipation, communication, challenge, decision-making and recovery from change.
Learn from everyday work, near misses and incidents without defaulting to blame.
Build internal coaches, champions and instructors who sustain the approach.
Human Performance is both a safety and leadership strategy. It reduces exposure to high-consequence events while strengthening reliability, resilience, quality and operational discipline.
Human Factors CRM capability
Crew Resource Management, or CRM, is a specialist Human Factors discipline developed in aviation to improve team performance under pressure.
The non-technical skills it develops
In drilling, energy and decommissioning, CRM helps crews and leaders apply these skills where risk is highest: in control rooms, on the rig floor, during well-control activity, across handovers, in planning meetings, during complex lifts and during abnormal or emergency operations.
Situational awareness and shared understanding.
Communication, teamwork and cross-monitoring.
Decision-making under pressure.
Leadership, followership, challenge and intervention.
Threat and error management.
Effective briefing, debriefing and feedback.
Mission Performance’s CRM capability is grounded in genuine operational expertise — not a generic aviation adaptation. We are an IADC-approved provider, and our Rig Operators CRM programme is the only externally accredited CRM programme in the IADC training database. Delivery is led by qualified Human Factors CRM instructors and experienced aviators, including former military fast-jet pilots and commercial airline captains, with programmes tailored to high-hazard industry. But CRM is not the whole answer. Without leadership reinforcement, effective work systems and local coaching, it can remain a one-off learning event. We position CRM within a wider Human Performance system so safer choices become embedded in everyday operations.
Our Human Performance system
Measure. Build and Train. Sustain. We turn broad safety ambition into focused, scalable capability.
Measure: identify the real gap
The diagnostic identifies strengths, blind spots and variation between roles, assets, functions, locations and safety-critical populations. It can explore:
Psychological safety, challenge and speak-up.
Leadership under pressure.
Communication, teamwork and handovers.
Situational awareness and decision-making.
Learning versus blaming.
Resilience, confidence, supervision and coaching.
The practical conditions that support or undermine safe work.
The result is a clear evidence base for action — not a generic programme applied everywhere. Heat maps identify where risk and capability gaps are concentrated, enabling investment to be focused where it will have greatest impact. The wider measurement approach establishes a behavioural baseline, targets intervention and tracks change over time.
Train: build critical capability
We design interventions around the operational context, risk profile and role requirements of each client. This can include:
Human Performance and Human Factors academies for HSE, Safety Coaches and operational leaders.
Human Factors CRM for drilling crews, Well Site Operators, supervisors and leadership teams.
Safety leadership programmes that strengthen challenge, decision-making and learning.
Operational-team interventions for specific risk-critical tasks or recurring issues.
Immersive simulations and role-specific learning.
Practical briefing, debriefing, handover, feedback and intervention habits.
Our approach combines the technical credibility of Human Factors CRM with leadership, coaching, communication and culture-change expertise. This helps leaders and crews use the same language, practise the same behaviours and reinforce consistent operating standards.
Sustain: embed internal capability
Mission Performance helps clients build the internal capability to maintain standards, extend reach and embed Human Performance into normal operations. Support can include:
Human Performance Champion and Safety Coach pathways.
Rig Site Training Coordinator CRM development.
Train-the-Trainer programmes and instructor accreditation.
Coaching for leaders and operational teams.
Requalification, refresh and reinforcement cycles.
Targeted action plans linked to local operational priorities.
Reassessment and performance tracking.
Where appropriate, our native AI Human Performance Coach provides role-specific support for higher-risk roles and safety-critical evolutions. It reinforces preparation, situational awareness, communication and learning in the flow of work, guided by the priorities identified through the diagnostic. The goal is not dependence on Mission Performance. It is an organisation with the confidence, capability and leadership discipline to sustain Human Performance for itself.
Proven in high-hazard operations
Two programmes built the same way, at very different scales.
637 people across a 55-rig fleet
A Middle East drilling contractor needed safety culture, leadership behaviour and non-technical skills strengthened across land and offshore rigs. An IOGP 502-aligned human factors and CRM programme trained 637 personnel across 35 courses at 4.7 out of 5, with more than 100 rig and personal action plans and a train-the-trainer pathway for internal ownership. Read the drilling CRM case study
One standard across 80+ countries
A global oilfield services organisation needed a single human factors standard for Well Site Operators in integrated drilling and land-rig operations. More than 120 operators trained over 18 months, ILM Level 3 endorsed, with 97% rating it highly applicable to their role. Read the global energy case study
Standards and operational evidence
The IADC WellSharp Plus programme integrates human factors and CRM with technical well-control training for experienced drilling personnel. The UK Health and Safety Executive identifies competence, supervision, safety culture and managing human failure as core offshore human-factor concerns. See how these principles transfer through the cockpit-gradient lesson and Mission Performance’s drilling CRM case study.
Practitioner experience behind the work
Don Evans is a former RAF Wing Commander and Civil Aviation Authority-qualified Crew Resource Management trainer who led the design and implementation of Mission Performance’s Well Operations CRM and Human Factors programme. David Mugridge brings 15 years of energy-sector experience and delivers Crew Resource Management training for Mission Performance in the Middle East.
Case studies
How do you strengthen safety decision-making for drilling operators in high-risk environments?
A global oilfield-services firm operating in 80+ countries needed stronger non-technical skills for its Well Site Operators.
How do you build a succession pipeline of executive-ready leaders?
A global insurer needed to assess and develop around 150 high-potential senior managers for executive roles.
How do you rebuild leadership and strategy after a business downturn?
A UK construction-services firm faced strategic misalignment, a leadership transition and management capability gaps after a downturn and a risky overseas venture.
How do you develop leaders at scale while managing a generational workforce shift?
A European defence manufacturer of 10,000+ staff across five countries faced an ageing workforce while scaling up.
How do you unify multiple training providers into one coherent leadership programme?
A global standards- and safety-critical organisation risked its multi-supplier leadership programme fragmenting across seven cohorts.
How do you build leadership and safety capability consistently across 80+ countries?
A global energy-services and technology firm needed consistent leadership and safety capability across very different cultural and operational settings.
Book a call
Book a call. We’ll learn your needs and find the best fit and programme for you.
Frequently asked questions
Is human performance the same as crew resource management?
No. Human performance is the organisation-wide system that makes safe, reliable work easier to achieve — leadership, culture, work design, systems, competence, learning and operational decision-making. Crew Resource Management is a specialist human factors intervention inside that approach, focused on the non-technical skills teams need under pressure. Mission Performance is an IADC approved provider, and its Rig Operators CRM programme is the only externally accredited CRM programme in the IADC training database.
What is human performance training?
Human performance is better described as a system than a course. It is the organisation-wide system that makes safe, reliable work easier to achieve, spanning leadership, culture, systems, competence and learning. Training is one part of that system: for teams in safety-critical operations it most often means Crew Resource Management, the aviation-derived human factors capability Mission Performance is an IADC approved provider for.
Why is CRM valuable in drilling, energy and decommissioning?
High-hazard work depends on more than technical competence. Teams have to detect changing conditions, hold a shared picture, decide soundly, communicate clearly, challenge effectively and recover from error. CRM builds and rehearses those capabilities where the risk actually sits: the control room, the rig floor, well-control activity, handovers and emergency operations.
Can human performance improve safety culture?
Yes, when it is more than a training event. Sustainable safety culture needs leaders modelling the behaviour, consistent operational practice, psychological safety, coaching and internal capability. Trained in isolation, CRM leaves people returning to leadership behaviours and work systems that never changed.
How do you decide which programme we need?
We start with the operational context, the business risk and current capability. The AI-enabled Human Performance Gap Indicator establishes a baseline across leadership, culture, systems and competence, and heat maps show which roles, assets and critical evolutions to prioritise — so the intervention is targeted rather than applied everywhere.
How do you make human factors skills stick?
We build internal capability through Human Performance Champion, Safety Coach, Rig Site Training Coordinator and train-the-trainer pathways, refresh each accredited person every one to two years, and coach individuals and operational teams. Bitesize content supports in-the-moment application. We make the programmes part of the culture, not the bureaucracy.
How do you measure the impact of human factors training?
Through pre-defined outcomes linked to reported incidents and near misses. We use the client’s own measurement tools to track progress, and we may suggest refinements to that data. Reassessment against the original baseline shows what has moved and directs the next intervention.
Do you work beyond drilling and oil and gas?
Yes. The methods are built for high-reliability environments where complexity, consequence and uncertainty put a premium on leadership, teamwork, decision-making and learning. Our deepest experience is in energy, drilling, offshore operations and decommissioning, and the underlying capability transfers to other safety-critical sectors.
If the stakes are real, start with a conversation.
Tell us where performance is leaking. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right partner.