Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life

by Ozan Varol

The deeper causes of the Challenger accident were hidden in NASA’s dark underbelly, as unearthed by Diane Vaughan in her decisive account of the events. She explains that, contrary to the Rogers Commission’s conclusions, the Challenger accident happened precisely because the managers did their jobs. They were following the rules—not violating them. Vaughan uses the term “normalization of deviance” to describe this pathology. The prevailing culture at NASA had normalized flying with unacceptable risks. “The cultural understandings, rules, procedures, and norms that always had worked in the past did not work this time,” Vaughan writes. “It was not amorally calculating managers violating rules that were responsible for the tragedy. It was conformity.”73 In other words, NASA didn’t just have an O-ring problem. It also had a conformity problem.