CNN, Feynman and the Challenger disaster

vsrr83

Why leaders watch it

Feynman on how NASA's management reasoned about risk before Challenger, a lesson in honest communication and safety culture.

A June 1986 CNN interview with physicist Richard Feynman about the Challenger disaster and the management failures he found while serving on the investigating commission.

Takeaways

• Managers underestimated risk against engineers' warnings
• Reality must take precedence over public relations
• Bad risk estimates normalize deviance

Topics: Failure, safety & learning orgs, Crisis & high-stakes leadership, Ethics & character

Related

• Mike Mullane - Normalisation of deviance - IAFF - Part 1 · Stuart Walker
• AWS re:Invent 2019: Optimizing Aerospace manufacturing operations & supply chain with AWS (MFG201) · AWS Events
• Richard Feynman Messenger Lectures at Cornell, The Character of Physical Law, Part 7: Seeking New Laws (1964) · Arindam Kumar Chatterjee
• Starbase Tour with Elon Musk [PART 1 // Summer 2021] · Everyday Astronaut
• I Was SCARED To Say This To NASA... (But I said it anyway) - Smarter Every Day 293 · SmarterEveryDay
• A conversation with Elon Musk about Starship · Everyday Astronaut
• Resilience is a Choice | Jeff Harmon | TEDxHarvard Square · TEDx Talks
• Climbing Kilimanjaro in a Wheelchair: Jeff Harmon on Leadership, Courage & Kindness · Michael G Neece
• Challenger: President Reagan's Challenger Disaster Speech - 1/28/86 · Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute
• steve jobs on why xerox failed · Kumar Saurav
• Leadership, Culture, and Ethics in Cybersecurity · Dr. Mansur Hasib - #DrCybersecurity
• What is it Like to Work for Elon Musk? · JRE Clips