Toronto - From train derailments and massive oil spills to bankruptcies and medical errors, system failures are all too common. And they’re becoming more frequent. At first glance, these failures seem to stem from very different problems. But in an eye-opening new book, Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik reveal that surprisingly these events have a shared DNA. Steeped in the latest research and including memorable case studies of breakdowns big and small, MELTDOWN: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It (Penguin Press; March 20, 2018) is a groundbreaking take on how complexity causes failures in all kinds of modern systems—from social media to air travel—and reveals how we can prevent meltdowns in business and our daily lives.
Clearfield, a former derivatives trader and licensed commercial pilot, and Tilcsik, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Strategy, Organizations, and Society at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, weave together cutting-edge social science with fascinating stories that take us from the frontlines of the Volkswagen scandal to backstage at the Oscars, and from deep beneath the Gulf of Mexico to the top of Mount Everest, to explain how the increasing complexity and lack of slack in our systems create conditions ripe for failure (as well as corruption) and why our brains and teams can't keep up.
In the past few decades, our understanding of complexity, organizational behavior, and cognitive psychology has given us a window into exactly how small mistakes blossom into massive failures. But these new findings also show us how to prevent these sort of breakdowns. MELTDOWN reveals why ugly designs make us safer, why teams with fewer experts are better at managing risk, and why diversity is one of our best safeguards against failure. Drawing on source material from across disciplines and industries, and interviews from a broad swath of people, including CEOs, social scientists, NASA engineers and regular citizens, Clearfield and Tilcsik share insights that are essential to making good decisions both at work and in our personal lives, running successful organizations, and tackling some of our greatest global challenges.
An eye-opening, empowering, and entirely original book, MELTDOWN will change the way you see our complex world and your own place in it.
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MELTDOWN
by Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik
Penguin Canada; Allen Lane Canada
Publication date: March 20, 2018
$34.95 ▪ 294 pages
ISBN: 978-0-7352-3332-4
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Chris Clearfield is a former derivatives trader who worked in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He is a licensed commercial pilot and a graduate of Harvard University, where he studied physics and biology. Chris has written about complexity and failure for The Guardian, Forbes, and the Harvard Kennedy School Review. He lives in Seattle.
András Tilcsik holds the Canada Research Chair in Strategy, Organizations, and Society at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. He has been recognized as one of the world's top forty business professors under forty and as one of thirty management thinkers most likely to shape the future of organizations. He lives in Toronto.
Learn more about the authors at www.rethinkrisk.net.
The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada’s commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca.
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Ken McGuffin
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Rotman School of Management
University of Toronto
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