Volume 1: The Human Element

Volume 2: Voyage Planning

Bridge Resource Management is a core skill for any watchkeeping officer, and it is assessed at management level under STCW. The Nautical Institute now publishes it as a two-volume set, which raises an obvious question for buyers: what is in each volume, and do you need one or both? This guide breaks down Volume 1 and Volume 2 so you can order the right book.

What Bridge Resource Management Means

BRM is about using every resource on the bridge, the people, the equipment and the information, so that no single mistake leads to an accident. Good BRM means the bridge team anticipate problems, communicate clearly, challenge each other when something looks wrong, and act in time. The idea grew out of crew resource management in aviation and is now built into STCW competence standards.

The Nautical Institute’s two-volume series updates and replaces the long-standing Bridge Team Management (2003), bringing the material into line with current practice and equipment.^{[ 1 ]}

What’s in Volume 1: The Human Element

Volume 1 covers the human side of an effective bridge team. It draws together contributions from several maritime experts and looks at the factors that let people perform at their best while staying alert to their own limitations. The main topics are:

• Situational awareness and team dynamics
• Communication and cultural diversity
• Authority, assertiveness and leadership
• Managing workload and dealing with overload

If your interest is leadership, teamwork and the human factors behind bridge errors, Volume 1 is the book you want.^{[ 2 ]}

What’s in Volume 2: Voyage Planning

Volume 2 covers the technical side. Voyage planning is the cornerstone of safe navigation and good BRM, and this volume works through every stage of preparing and executing a passage plan. It covers a plan that takes account of all known information, sets clear margins of safety, and defines operational limits so the team can intervene in time. It also deals with the management of the systems, information and equipment that support shared mental models and timely intervention.^{[ 3 ]}

If your interest is passage planning and the management of bridge systems and equipment, Volume 2 is the one.

Which Volume Do You Need?

• Choose Volume 1 if you are focused on leadership, communication, team dynamics and human factors.
• Choose Volume 2 if you are focused on voyage and passage planning and managing bridge systems and equipment.
• Choose the two-volume set if you are training deck officers to management level or equipping a ship or training centre, because the human and technical sides work together.

Most training centres and ship operators will want both, because BRM competence spans the human and the technical. The Nautical Institute sells the volumes individually and as a discounted two-volume set.

→ Buy Bridge Resource Management Volume 1 (The Human Element)

→ Buy Bridge Resource Management Volume 2 (Voyage Planning)

→ Buy the Bridge Resource Management Volume 1 and 2 Set

How the BRM Series Fits STCW

BRM underpins STCW competences in teamworking and leadership, which appear at both operational and management level, with the fuller leadership and managerial-skill competence set at management level. Training providers seeking course approval, and officers preparing for certification, use the Nautical Institute volumes as the current reference. The books do not replace an approved course, but they underpin the knowledge behind it.

BRM is also supported by an official IMO training framework, Model Course 1.22. For an overview of the IMO Model Course series and how it maps to STCW, see our guide to IMO Model Courses Explained. Voyage planning, the subject of Volume 2, is required under SOLAS Chapter V; for background on the convention, see our guide to the SOLAS Consolidated Edition 2024.