Soft skills training series: Module IV – Sense of responsibility

The Soft Skill training series is based on the System Operation Guideline

(COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2017/1485 of 02.08.2017), which specifies the education and training programme for employees in real-time operation of the transmission system operators and is also understood as a guideline for distribution system operators.

This explicitly includes action skills and in particular stress management, behaviour in critical (network) situations, a sense of responsibility and the ability to motivate.

In cooperation with the training coordinators of the German transmission system operators and the distribution system operators, a series of training courses was successively developed to enable the employees responsible for real-time operation to develop these skills, reflect on them and test them in a crisis-proof manner.

Module IV Stress Resistance deals with the physical and cognitive effects of stress, as well as their impact on the problem-solving and decision-making abilities of those affected.

The aim of the sense of responsibility module is for participants to deal with the dutiful, daily handling of delegated responsibility.

Objective

The aim is to recognise and accept the responsibility that comes with the job and to act accordingly and with a sense of duty. In addition to the theoretical dimensions of responsibility, the professional and human requirements, as well as the individual handling of social pressure and possible “questions of guilt” are discussed and put into perspective. In this sense, the responsibility assigned is understood as an enrichment.

Learning objectives

• Consciously dealing with the assumption of responsibility
• Making responsibility clear as a speaking and responding skill
• Being able to recognise and use terms of responsibility
• Dealing with (delegated) responsibility in a considered manner

Participants

The soft skills training is aimed at specialists and managers, in particular employees in grid and system management (real-time operation) as well as employees of grid and power plant operators.

Method

• Lecture
• Group tasks
• Reflection exercises
• Exercise scenarios with direct practical relevance
• Discussions

Contents

• Terms (responsibility, responsibility triangle)
• Ethical and moral dimensions of responsibility, awareness
• Human factors (Shell model, errors and error culture, safety cultures)
• Limits of responsibility, dilemmas
• Legal dimensions of responsibility
• Emotional dimension of responsibility
• Transfer and assumptions of responsibility
• Discussion of responsibility as a factual task and as a social norm
• Separation of legal and psycho-social guilt
• Dealing with individually perceived questions and situations of guilt (independent of legal aspects)
• Healthy and conscientious handling of (transferred) responsibilities
• Transfer to your own professional situation