Breaking Chain Of Mistakes Prevents Business Disasters

The Ancient Greek tragedies invariably told the story of a character who came to grief through a series of mistakes that all started with a failure to heed strong warnings. The Titanic, Three-Mile Island (TMI) and NASA’s space shuttles Challenger and Columbia are all modern examples of "corporate tragedies" that occurred because of assumptions that were incorrect, systems that were misunderstood, and actions that exhibited extraordinary lack of preparation and insight. Above all, they were the result of reckless disregard of alarming information.

Almost every business disaster is the result of not one mistake, but a succession of mistakes. At many points along the road to ruin, that chain could have been broken and the situation corrected—if only people had seen and believed the evidence that sat in front of their noses.

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