Lessons learned in blood: Why we fail to use near-misses to prevent man-made disasters

ABSTRACT

Many, if not most, man-made disasters are preceded by near-misses, where something goes awry but lucky circumstances prevent things from going truly and irreparably wrong. Organizations can learn from these near-misses and make changes necessary to prevent future disasters, but often they do not. This can sometimes be the fault of dysfunctional leadership, but there are also more basic psychological factors at work.

KEYWORDS:

• Organizational failure
• near-miss
• risk
• environmental disaster

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Robin Dillon-Merrill, Peter Madsen, and Jennifer Logg, without whom this underlying research would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This research was funded in part by grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Funding

This research was funded in part by grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded in part by grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Notes on contributors

Catherine H. Tinsley

Catherine H. Tinsley (CathyTinsley.com) is the Raffini Professor of Management, and chair of the management group at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. She is also a faculty fellow for the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy, and director of the Georgetown University Women’s Leadership Institute. Aside from studying how people process risk, her newest research looks to enhance people’s receptivity to opposing points of view, and how leaders can re-frame failure to increase motivation in their workforce. She also studies how factors such as culture, reputations, and gender influence negotiation and conflict resolution.