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Meltdown : why our systems fail and what we can do about it / Christopher Clearfield and Andras Tilcsik.

by Clearfield, Christopher.

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Allen Lane Canada, 2018.

Disasters -- Case studies.

Failure (Psychology) -- Case studies.

Risk management -- Case studies.

9780735233324 (hc.)

Issued also in electronic format.

"There is a shared DNA of catastrophes. Vivid examples - from dramatic failures and harrowing close calls to untold stories of effective risk management - explain how complexity creates conditions ripe for failure. How biases and organizational practices obscure warning signs until it's too late. The complexity of some systems makes a problem difficult to diagnose. Worse, if parts of the system are tightly connected, these failures spread rapidly. A small trigger can push things toward catastrophe, like a misstep by a backcountry skier on a mountainside ripe for an avalanche. From the sinking of the Korean ferry MV Sewol, the subprime mortgage crisis, wrongful murder convictions, Target's disastrous $7 billion foray into Canada, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, and the biggest unsolved art theft in US history. Why failures happen over and over again and what their seemingly disparate causes have in common. Disastrous events in one area can provide useful insights for other areas. Lessons from aviation and the financial markets, for example, can help us design more resilient power grids, build less error-prone healthcare systems, and better prepare counter-terrorism officers for emergencies. They also help us choose better financial investments, launch a new project at work, or purchase a new home. There is a quiet revolution to find solutions that radically reduce the risk of catastrophic failure, and don't require advanced technologies or million-dollar budgets. Useful lessons come from many places, including NASA's flight cognition laboratory, Israel's military intelligence agency, the UK's Department of Work and Pensions, Goldman Sachs, emergency managers in New York City, and a group of Sherpas who lead climbing expeditions to the world's highest peaks. Christopher Clearfield is a former derivatives trader. He is a licensed commercial pilot and a graduate of Harvard University, where he studied physics and biology. He lives in Seattle. Andras Tilcsik holds the Canada Research Chair in Strategy, Organizations, and Society at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He lives in Toronto"--Provided by publisher.

Tilcsik, Andras.

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