Cope with the unexpected
Coping with the unexpected is rarely businesses’ strong point. How can you find inspiration in the practices of high-reliability organizations?
Companies often have trouble responding appropriately to unexpected events. They tend to underestimate the importance of such events, hoping that the consequences will be negligible. However, in the absence of appropriate response, an apparently minor incident can degenerate rapidly into a much more serious problem. For example, catastrophes like the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Bhopal Union Carbide plant explosion occurred because people failed to take observed warning signs seriously.
The authors of “Managing the Unexpected” decided to study organizations reputed for their excellent reliability, e.g. aircraft carriers, nuclear power plants, etc. They observed that these organizations shared the same mindset and several operational characteristics. The lessons drawn there-from are highly enlightening:
– Discover the psychological biases that lead people to underestimate the importance of unexpected events.
– Learn from high-reliability organizations to detect warning signs as early as possible.
– Ensure that the organization can respond immediately to any unexpected event.
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See also
Strengthening cybersecurity
The risk of cyberattacks concerns all companies. Far from being the sole concern of the IT teams, cybersecurity must become a collective response. How can you develop a culture of shared vigilance?
Preparing for an uncertain future
In times of turmoil and strong uncertainty, how can you manage beyond simply coping with the situation? One solution consists in accepting the inevitable nature of uncertainty: the challenge does not consist in minimizing it, but in managing it.
