Every bridge and engine room team runs on communication. The Process Communication Model® (PCM) is a widely used behavioural framework that explains how people see the world, what motivates them, how they prefer to communicate and, crucially, how they behave under stress. It gives seafarers a shared, practical language for understanding themselves and each other, turning differences in personality from a source of friction into a source of strength.
PCM was developed by American clinical psychologist Dr Taibi Kahler. Building on transactional analysis, Kahler identified observable “driver” behaviours that signal when communication is about to break down, research for which he received the Eric Berne Memorial Scientific Award in 1977. In 1978, as NASA began its Space Shuttle programme, NASA’s Dr Terry McGuire started using Kahler’s approach to help select astronauts, assessing how candidates communicated, managed their emotions and coped with stress. NASA relied on it for almost two decades. Since then PCM has been used by political leaders, negotiators, educators and creative studios such as Pixar, and it is now applied by organisations around the world.
PCM recognises six personality types. Everyone has all six, arranged in their own order like the floors of a building. Your “base” is the type you are born with and communicate from most naturally; your current “phase” shapes what motivates you, and how you react when under pressure, right now.
Most incidents at sea involve the Human Element, and many Human Element failures start as communication failures: a junior officer who does not speak up, a Master whose intentions are misread, an engineer under pressure who stops listening. PCM shows that each personality type has predictable stress behaviours, and that these can be recognised early and defused by communicating with each person in the way they are best able to hear. For bridge and engine room teams this means clearer closed-loop communication, more confident challenge and response, stronger leadership and fewer misunderstandings when it matters most. It also directly supports the behavioural focus of OCIMF’s SIRE 2.0, which looks at how well crews actually perform critical tasks in practice.
EASK Marine can carry out full PCM profiling of your crews and officers. Each participant completes the PCM questionnaire and receives a personal profile showing their personality structure, preferred communication style, motivators and stress patterns. We then train teams, onboard or ashore, to put those insights to work: recognising each other’s strengths and weaknesses, adapting how they communicate, and resolving friction before it affects safety. The result is a crew with a deeper understanding of one another that gets on better and works together more effectively.
Capt. Remi Klos, AFNI, is EASK Marine’s PCM Champion and a fully qualified PCM trainer. A former tanker Master with two decades at sea with companies including Wilhelmsen, Grindrod Shipping and Maersk Tankers, Remi combines deep operational experience with expertise in behavioural science. He has delivered PCM training for some of the largest shipping companies in the world with great results, helping bridge and engine room teams communicate more clearly, manage stress and work together more safely.
For more information and to discuss how we can assist you with your particular requirements, please contact us;
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