A senior manager in a technical management office once said in frustration,
“We have manuals, checklists, PMS procedures—all in place. Yet, we continue getting non-compliances. What more do we need to make people follow them?”
The answer doesn’t lie in adding more procedures—it lies in understanding people. Safety and compliance standards cannot be improved solely by maritime knowledge. To solve the issue truly, we need to dive into a structured study of behavioural psychology.
Reimagining maritime competence
At Navguide Solutions, we spent half a decade creating Guide2Inspections, a non-traditional system designed to enhance onboard competence. This system is now in use on hundreds of vessels, improving their results in SIRE 2.0, Rightship, Port State Inspections, and audits. Our work is definitely not theoretical because the impact is measurable — it is actually impacting performance standards!
We talk about visualising checklists and instructions, gamifying procedures, and bringing the classroom into the field. Are these just good ideas? Or is there a deeper research behind?
To truly understand the implications of this, let us examine the Fogg behaviour model.
How human behaviour is manifested
Scientist BJ Fogg of Stanford University ascertained that three things must happen for a behaviour to manifest. Here’s a thought experiment to explain this.
Imagine you are at a party, someone approaches you with a smile and extends a hand. Your hands reach out instinctively, expecting a handshake. The extended hand was a trigger! The light in the signal turns green, you start your car, and you drive – that’s a trigger. The doorbell rings, and you answer it — the doorbell was the trigger.
Now that we understand one element, let us understand the other two.
Think about that moment when your phone rings. Your decision to answer—or not—hinges on two simple levers: ability and motivation. If you’re in the shower, your hands are wet, or you are in a meeting or the phone is out of reach, the problem is ability. You are unable to act, even if you wanted to.
On the other hand, if you glance at the caller ID and think, “I don’t want to talk to him. Not today,” or that you were too depressed to answer the phone, the obstacle isn’t ability; the phone is right there. What’s missing is motivation.
Behaviour = Motivation + Abilty + Trigger [B = MAT]
The model states — three things must come together all at the same time for a behaviour to manifest itself: a minimum level of motivation, a minimum level of ability and a trigger. Graphically,
If we understand the correlation between these three factors, we can control behaviour.
In the graph above, Ability is represented on the X-axis, ranging from something difficult to easy. Similarly, Motivation is displayed on the Y Axis between low and high. The green curved line is the action line; anything left of that line indicates that the trigger will fail to generate the desired action — either the motivation is too low or the job is too tough. Anything on its right will succeed.
Point A in the graph represents things like brushing your teeth – It is too easy to do, and we do not need as much motivation.
On the other hand, climbing Mount Everest is tough. However, with enough motivation, you will still do it! This is represented by Point B in the graph.
Makes sense?
How does all of this matter
What I am about to say is the insight that changes the game! It makes some people or corporations vastly more successful than others.
It is the insight that between ability and motivation, you can motivate some people some of the time, but not all people all of the time. If you genuinely want to change behaviour on a massive scale, influence how people act, you must work on the ability factor. Make something so simple to execute that people do not need as much motivation.
Controlling behaviour
The Fogg behaviour model has already been used by big tech companies to reshape our behaviours, without our knowledge or consent. Think about it.
You have five apps on your phone that you use 90% of the time —more than hundreds of other apps you may have installed.
Take Facebook: the trigger is a notification ping, the ability is effortless—just a swipe of your thumb, and just like that, you’re inside a dopamine loop of likes, shares and social validation. Uber works the same way. The trigger is the thought, “I need a ride.” The app makes it absurdly simple to act—just two taps, no cash, no haggling. The ride is at your doorstep. Want to send a message? WhatsApp makes it incredibly simple to do so.
Why are these billion-dollar companies putting in so much effort to make things simple?
By lowering effort, these companies don’t just serve us; they shape our daily habits. You no longer want to go out on the streets to call a cab; you would much rather send a message than make a call. You would order food at home instead of going out to a restaurant. They’ve proved that when ability, trigger, and motivation align seamlessly, behaviour doesn’t just change—it becomes automatic.
And that’s the real lesson from Fogg’s model: if you want people to consistently act—whether it’s answering a call, recycling a bottle, or following a safety checklist—make the behaviour so simple that motivation doesn’t even need to show up.
Checklists and Instructions
Now compare the above with what we have been trying to do all along in the maritime industry. Our techniques have remained the same over the years. We still rely on checklists, text-based instructions such as PMS, SMS, or Manuals, and peer-to-peer learning, which may or may not occur on all vessels.
And then we put way too much effort into trying to motivate people to use these methods. We may motivate them with the fear of consequences or the lure of the next promotion or pay raise, but are we addressing the real problem?
Why can’t we act on ability? That’s exactly what we did.
Why Guide2Inspections works
We approached it from a simple corollary: people are not deliberately unsafe.
They are unsafe because they don’t know any better. When procedures are buried in bulky text or scattered across multiple folders, following them becomes a chore. Checklists can be misinterpreted; Text instructions cannot convey application skills, as in, I cannot explain how to tie a knot using text. It may be too difficult to ask a question of a senior due to cultural reasons, language barriers, or interpersonal issues.
Why don’t we just simplify things with smart tech?
When instructions are visualised, gamified, and brought to the point of need —right before the point of action —it is made self-applicable. That is what we do with Guide2Inspections™ — the app makes compliance part of a natural workflow.
The thought process is straightforward: pick up the app and start doing your job!
Head out into the engine room or the Bridge to self-audit your area. Collect evidence with photos and comments. The app provides a thorough self-adit system with a simple interface. Two clicks and you are in! However, if you do not understand a requirement, we have a mentor embedded within the system to guide you — a video, a photo, a note, or a game that can illustrate what the requirement really means. We can now show you the exact part of a Lifeboat floating block prone to cracks, or where you can expect a steam valve to leak from.
Imagine having a super-smart, super-energetic training superintendent who is always ready to guide everyone on board, one who never gets tired, never judges you for asking the same question three times, and can show you precisely what to do and how to do it.
Keeping the vessel SIRE 2.0 or Rightship Ready
Simplicity eats motivation for breakfast.
The data is not yet sufficient to release, but we are already seeing the trends emerge clearly. Testimonials from the seafarers prove that they are accepting the approach wholeheartedly.
A third officer saved a vessel from being detained by identifying a crack in the rescue boat. The vessel would have incurred approximately $ 100,000 in off-hire charges had this been overlooked. A Chief Engineer remarked that for the first time in his career, he did not have to push the engine crew before an audit; rather, they identified areas that needed attention.
We have had a number of seafarers who have already paid for Guide2Inspections on a month-by-month basis, because it improves their working styles and confidence levels.
Conclusion
When compliance feels complex, people avoid it. But when you make it effortless, when the “how” is as clear as the “why,” behaviour changes naturally. That’s the secret countless tech giants already use—and it’s the principle we’ve embedded into Guide2Inspections™. We’re reshaping competence itself.
Safety isn’t just about rules being in place. It’s a consequence of rules being followed.
