3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on the Power of Reliability
3 Ideas in 2 Minutes on the Power of Reliability
High Reliability Organisations, Consistency & Wittgenstein's Ruler
Hi everyone, I’m curious about your reasons for reading my newsletters and essays. Please take a moment to answer the question below:
I. High Reliability Organisations
High Reliability Organisations are places such as aircraft carriers, operating theatres, or air traffic control that successfully deal with life-or-death situations on a daily basis. Even though they operate in an environment characterised by extreme complexity and a high risk of failure, the rate of fatal accidents is relatively low.
Researchers Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe have identified five core principles of such organisations. They are:
preoccupied with failure
resistant to simplification
sensitive to operations
committed to resilience and
they practice deference to expertise.
High Reliability Organizations identify problems before they occur and know how to handle them in case they do happen. They don't underestimate seemingly insignificant problems and consistently strike a balance between an eye for detail and a focus on the mission.
This is illustrated by their trust in every individual’s expertise. Even the lowest rank on an aircraft carrier can halt flight operations if they see a potential problem. And if they turn out to be wrong? Then the unimaginable happens: They're rewarded for speaking up.
II. Consistency
When former intelligence officer Andrew Bustamante was asked how he could be sure that his wife (a spy herself) was not a double agent, he gave the following answer:
The most difficult thing in the world is consistency. It’s the most difficult thing in the world. Some people say that [it’s] discipline or self-discipline. What they’re really talking about consistency. When you have someone who performs consistently over long periods of time under various levels of stress, you have high confidence that that is the person that you can trust. You can trust them to behave within a certain pattern.
—Andrew Bustamante, Lex Fridman Podcast #310
In other words, reliability means performing consistently at a high level, which in turn creates trust.
III. Wittgenstein's Ruler
Wittgenstein's Ruler is a philosophical concept that was coined by author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who named it after philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein:
Unless the source of a statement has extremely high qualifications, the statement will be more revealing of the author than the information intended by him. This applies to matters of judgment. According to Wittgenstein’s ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler’s reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using the table to measure the ruler.
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Fooled by Randomness
So rather than the length of objects, Wittgenstein’s Ruler challenges our assumptions about people and their judgements. Check out my latest essay on Wittgenstein’s Ruler to learn more about this fascinating concept. 🐘
Have a great week,
Chris
themindcollection.com
