book

Charles Perrow — Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk

Perrow, Charles. *Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies*. New York: Basic Books, 1984.

Related concepts

Concept

Correction

Correction is reality-contact and revisability: the lived work of noticing mismatch, updating beliefs or behavior, and narrowing the gap between what was assumed and what is actually happening before drift hardens into normal.

Concept

Distance

separation from visible consequence

Concept

Legitimacy

Legitimacy is justified recognition of authority—whether power reads as earned and contestable enough that coordination holds under stress instead of collapsing into cynicism, performative compliance, or hidden veto by drift.

Related patterns

Pattern

Disagreement is Suppressed

A leader or leadership setup gains stability, success, or repeated proof that they are right. Guarding the leader can matter as much as getting the facts right. - Success builds confidence. Challenge feels less needed. - Speaking against the line costs more socially - Loyalty is rewarded over pushback - Stories about who we are harden around the leader Dissent fades or softens until it no longer challenges decisions. I keep asking where the challenge is, and I'm not hearing it. Disagreement is suppressed—even when the risk is staring at us.

Related books

Book

When Others Look to You

Renewal and Erosion in Leadership

A leadership field guide to how influence forms, how trust is renewed, and how erosion begins when responsibility drifts from practice.