Capt. Panagiotis Nikiteas, HSQE Manager at Maran Dry Management Inc., didn’t mince words at the 16th SAFETY4SEA Athens Forum. He cut straight to the heart of maritime safety: the human factor. With decades of experience at sea and ashore, he’s seen firsthand how groupthink and cognitive biases distort decision-making. These aren’t abstract risks—they’re the silent forces behind misjudgments, near-misses, and incidents that could be avoided.
Nikiteas didn’t just theorize. He shared a story from his postgraduate days in the UK, where a visiting professor, a former Extra Master mariner, flipped his understanding of teamwork. “If one machine produces ten units, how much will two machines produce?” The answer was obvious—twenty. But when the professor asked the same question about people, the answer wasn’t so simple. “It could be less than that, or more. It depends on how they work together.” That lesson stuck. It’s why Nikiteas later studied why Greek maritime cadets were abandoning their careers. The culprit? A toxic social environment. Senior crew members discouraged cadets with remarks like, “Why are you here? Stay ashore. This is no life.” The message was clear: how we interact shapes the future of our profession.
Groupthink, Nikiteas argued, is the silent killer of critical thinking. It’s the reason crews, departments, or even entire companies fall into harmony at the expense of honesty. People stay quiet to protect the group, their boss, or themselves. They rationalize actions, stereotype outsiders, and suppress dissent. The result? Poor decisions. Nikiteas has seen it all—on vessels, in offices, across companies. The solution? Open communication, diversity of thought, and leaders who encourage respectful disagreement.
But groupthink isn’t the only challenge. Cognitive biases—confirmation bias, overconfidence, the availability heuristic—distort judgment. In multicultural, hierarchical teams, these biases can amplify miscommunication and misjudgment. Nikiteas stressed the need for proactive safety systems. Automation, while efficient, introduces new risks: technostress and skill erosion. Crews must adapt to digital systems, new fuels, and technologies, but training often lags behind. The result? Operators who are digitally competent but manually unprepared.
Perhaps the most worrying issue is underreporting. Nikiteas is convinced that every company has far more “undesirable events” than it realizes. Fear of blame, hierarchical barriers, and lack of psychological safety keep incidents unreported. In multicultural crews, communication barriers make this harder. The solution? Cross-cultural competence and standardized communication procedures. Everyone must feel empowered to raise concerns, regardless of rank, nationality, or accent.
Nikiteas’ message was clear: safety isn’t just about technology, systems, or procedures—it’s about voice. We must empower people to express concerns, report deviations, and speak up. Group harmony shouldn’t mean silence. Real unity is built on openness and respect. So, he urged masters, officers, managers, and leaders to encourage dialogue, challenge complacency, and listen to dissent. That’s how we build resilient teams. That’s how we protect not just operations, but each other.