For Matthew Currin, this is personal. He knows first-hand the value of the transfer of information between people in an organization. Now retired military combat veteran, he is a helicopter EMS pilot where he transports gravely sick and injured patients by helicopter to the hospital.
Matthew has experienced many lessons throughout the duration of his career, but there was one night in 2001 that ultimately changed his life and became the motivation for his life’s mission. During routine shipboard training off Marine Corps Airstation New River, NC, Matthew was the lead pilot of one of two CH-46E helicopters during training that night. Due to ‘human error’ in the second aircraft, the helicopter impacted the water, killing three Marines, including Matthew’s good friend and combat aircrewman.
Matthew would later learn that a similar mishap took place in a different training exercise a few years prior. Had knowledge from that experience been properly transferred after the first mishap, the 2001 training crash could have been prevented.
From that moment, Matthew understood the impact and power of ‘the transfer of experience and knowledge’ in decision making. Every day of our lives we are faced with having to make decisions. Matthew believes that if we recognize the strengths of our own knowledge and experience, and capitalize on the experience and knowledge of others, we will ultimately make better decisions and avoid making mistakes we might have otherwise made.