Drift into Failure
Updated 2026-08-08
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Drift into failure, from safety research, holds that major accidents are rarely caused by a single dramatic fault. They are the cumulative product of many small, gradual compromises, each made to keep local efficiency, each individually defensible, that move the system past its safety boundary without anyone noticing. Warning signals are weakened at each level on the way up. The practical stance is that disaster is a byproduct of optimization: every shortcut taken to be a little faster or a little cheaper pushes the system closer. The remedy is a channel through which bad news travels up intact. Qualification: drift is invisible to the people inside it, which is the point.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Compromise ledger: log every small shortcut taken so the drift direction becomes visible in aggregate. - Bad-news channel: make upward reporting safe, quick, and protected from weakening. - Exception alarm: treat each invocation of this is an exception as a permanent change to the standard.
Anchor fast decisions
Each local compromise is small enough to be rationalized, and the people who made the last one are never the ones who see the aggregate. Because no single step looks fatal, the system's effective safety boundary moves without anyone updating the map of where it is. Warnings are softened as they rise, so the organization learns of the drift only from the accident it was drifting toward.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Dekkerverified
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