Socio-technical communication: The hybrid space and the OLB model for science-based cyber education

Lessons from safety-critical sociotechnical systems, such as aviation and acute medical care, demonstrate the importance of the human factor and highlight the crucial role of efficient communication between human agents. Although a large proportion of fatal incidents in aviation have been linked to failures in communication, cognitive engineering provides the theoretical framework to mitigate risks and increase performance in sociotechnical systems not only in the civil sector, but also in the military domain. Conducting cyber operations in multidomain battles presents new challenges for military training and education as the increased importance of psychological factors such as metacognitive skills and perspective-taking both in lower and higher ranking staff, becomes more apparent. The Hybrid Space framework (Jøsok et al., 2016) provides a blueprint for describing the cognitive and behavioral constraints for maneuvering between socio-technical and cyber-physical systems whilst cooperating, coordinating or competing with accompanying cognitive styles in the chain of command. We apply the Hybrid Space framework to communicative challenges in the military cyber domain and suggest a three-phase Orienting, Locating, Bridging model for safe and efficient communication between partners. Based on the educational principles of the Norwegian Defence Cyber Academy, we discuss the required skill-sets and knowledge in which cyber officer cadets are trained and taught early in their education, and how these refer to the theoretical framework of the Hybrid Space and the key principles of communication as defined in cognitive engineering.