Exercises: Crisis and Correction

Part A: Comprehension and Application

A.1. The French military's defeat in 1940 is described as a crisis that crossed the threshold. Using the five properties of paradigm-breaking crises, score the Fall of France on each property (1 = low, 5 = high). Then compare your scoring to the Challenger disaster. Which crisis scored higher overall, and why did one produce deeper reform than the other?

A.2. Define "normalization of deviance" in your own words. Then identify a situation from your own professional experience where a risky practice was gradually normalized because nothing bad had happened yet. What would it take to reverse that normalization without a crisis?

A.3. The chapter describes three types of crisis response: genuine correction, cosmetic correction, and wasted crisis. For each type, the chapter provides examples. Add one NEW example of each type from your own knowledge — a crisis in any field that produced genuine correction, one that produced cosmetic correction, and one that was wasted.

A.4. Explain the "reform exhaustion effect" and give an example of how cosmetic reform can actually raise the threshold for genuine correction. Why is this counterintuitive?

A.5. The chapter argues that "the magnitude of the crisis does not predict the depth of the correction." Explain why, using the contrast between the 2008 financial crisis and psychology's replication crisis as your evidence.

Part B: Analysis

B.1. Apply the institutional grief cycle to a crisis in your own field or a field you know well: - What was the crisis event? - How did denial manifest? (What was the initial explanation that avoided implicating the paradigm?) - Who was blamed during the anger stage? (Was blame directed at individuals or systems?) - What reforms were implemented during bargaining? (Were they procedural or paradigmatic?) - Did the field reach the depression or acceptance stages? If not, what prevented it?

B.2. The chapter identifies three mechanisms by which crises are wasted: the attribution battle, the reform exhaustion effect, and generational forgetting. Rank these three mechanisms by which is most difficult to counter, and explain your reasoning. Which mechanism is most active in a field you know well?

B.3. Consider the night-before-launch teleconference described in section 19.7. Jerry Mason told Robert Lund to "take off your engineering hat and put on your management hat." Analyze this instruction using concepts from at least three previous chapters (e.g., incentive structures from Chapter 11, consensus enforcement from Chapter 14, the Einstellung effect from Chapter 13). What structural forces made this instruction effective?

B.4. The "Active Right Now" section identifies antibiotic resistance, AI safety, and climate change adaptation as domains exhibiting pre-crisis patterns. Choose one of these (or identify your own) and: - Score it on the five properties of paradigm-breaking crises - Identify where it currently sits in the institutional grief cycle - Predict what kind of event would be required to cross the crisis threshold - Assess whether the field has the structural features that would support genuine correction vs. cosmetic correction

Part C: Synthesis and Evaluation

C.1. The chapter describes a paradox: "if fields change primarily in response to crisis, then the cost of correction is measured in the damage the crisis inflicts." Design a thought experiment that tests whether this paradox is avoidable. Specifically: describe an institutional structure that would allow correction before crisis. What features would it need? What historical examples (if any) suggest such a structure is possible?

C.2. Compare the crisis-correction pattern across two different domains: one from the natural sciences (medicine, physics, biology) and one from the social sciences (economics, psychology, education). Are the institutional grief cycles similar? Does crisis play the same role in both? What structural differences between natural and social sciences affect how crises are processed?

C.3. The aviation industry is often cited as a rare example of genuine, sustained correction driven by cumulative crises (the modern aviation safety record is remarkable). Analyze what structural features of the aviation industry enabled genuine correction rather than cosmetic reform. Which of these features could be transferred to other fields, and which are unique to aviation?

Part D: Mixed Practice (Interleaved)

These problems require you to CHOOSE the right analytical framework, not just apply one.

D.1. A pharmaceutical company discovers that one of its best-selling drugs has a serious side effect that was not detected in clinical trials. The company's response follows a predictable pattern: initial denial ("the data is inconclusive"), then blame assignment ("the trial design was inadequate"), then procedural reform ("we'll add new monitoring requirements"). Analyze this scenario using concepts from at least four different chapters. What failure modes contributed to the original error? What failure modes are shaping the response?

D.2. In 2010, Toyota recalled millions of vehicles due to unintended acceleration problems. The company's initial response was to attribute the problem to floor mat interference and driver error. Only after intense public pressure and congressional investigation did Toyota acknowledge electronic throttle control issues and implement deeper reforms. Classify this response using the institutional grief cycle and the taxonomy of crisis responses. Was the crisis genuine correction, cosmetic correction, or wasted?

D.3. A university department discovers that several of its most-cited papers contain statistical errors. The department chair must decide how to respond. Using the frameworks from this chapter and Chapter 14 (consensus enforcement), advise the chair on how to avoid a cosmetic correction response. What specific structural changes would you recommend beyond fixing the individual papers?

D.4. Consider a field that has experienced a crisis but not corrected — the crisis was wasted. Now imagine that the same failure mode produces a second crisis, twenty years later. Is the second crisis more or less likely to produce genuine correction than the first? Argue both sides, then take a position.

Part E: Deep Dive Extensions

E.1. Read Diane Vaughan's concept of "normalization of deviance" in more depth (from The Challenger Launch Decision or secondary sources). Apply her framework to a non-aerospace example: a hospital, a financial institution, or a software company. How does the normalization cycle operate? What would interrupt it?

E.2. Research the aviation industry's Crew Resource Management (CRM) training program — developed in response to multiple aviation disasters. Write a 500-word analysis of why CRM represents genuine correction rather than cosmetic reform, using the markers identified in section 19.5.

E.3. The chapter notes that "institutional memory of crises fades faster than institutional memory of paradigms." Design a mechanism — a policy, a practice, or an institution — that would slow the rate of institutional forgetting. What historical examples suggest this is possible?