Professor Barry Staw from the U.C. Berkeley Business School has shown that, at least initially, people and organizations respond to problems by clinging even more tightly to what they know how to do best and have done in the past. At the same time, these external threats cause people to resist trying new things; even when they do try, their anxiety makes it difficult for them to learn. Staw calls this the “threat-rigidity effect,” as threats and difficulties cause people and firms to do what they have done repeatedly in the past and, therefore, to engage in even more “mindless”
