Podcasts about meltdown why our systems fail

In this episode of the AIGA Design Podcast, host Lee-Sean Huang and Giulia Donatello interview author and consultant Karl Sakas ("Say Kiss”). Karl's clients often call him their “agency therapist.” They discuss the challenges agency owners face, including misconceptions about agency ownership, pricing strategies, and the importance of understanding market rates. Karl shares insights on productizing services, revenue growth, and how to escape the daily grind of agency ownership. The conversation emphasizes the need for agency owners to work smarter, not harder, and to focus on their strengths while delegating tasks effectively. They also delve into various aspects of running an agency, including the challenges of client strategy and sales, the importance of visualizing the future of the agency, understanding cultural differences in business practices, and the multifaceted nature of performance in leadership.  Karl's latest book, Work Less, Earn More - https://amzn.to/41n4jvn  Sakas and Company - https://sakasandcompany.com/  Karl's upcoming book, Calm the Chos: 10 Ways to Run a Better Agency - https://calmthechaos.xyz/  Recommended book - Overcoming Underearning: A Five-Step Plan to a Richer Life by Barbara Stanny - https://amzn.to/4i5bptK  Recommended book - Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It Hardcover by by Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik - https://amzn.to/3X2WdoY Join us for the 2025 AIGA Design Conference, October 9-11 in Los Angeles, California - https://www.aiga.org/design/aiga-design-conference Listen/Subscribe to the audio version of this podcast on your preferred platform -  https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/aigadesign 

Chapter 1 What is the Book Meltdown"Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It" is a book written by Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik. It explores the reasons behind system failures in various domains, ranging from finance and healthcare to technology and transportation. The book delves into the concept of complexity and how it can lead to unexpected and catastrophic failures. The authors examine real-life examples of major incidents and disasters to uncover patterns and commonalities that contribute to these failures. They highlight the role of human error, organizational culture, inadequate systems design, and unforeseen interactions among complex components. Through their analysis, Clearfield and Tilcsik propose strategies and solutions for improving system resilience and reducing the likelihood of future failures. They emphasize the importance of embracing diversity, creating feedback loops, fostering transparency, and promoting a healthy culture of learning from mistakes. Overall, "Meltdown" offers insights into systemic risks and provides valuable lessons for individuals and organizations seeking to understand and mitigate the potential for failures in complex systems.Chapter 2 Why is Meltdown A Good BookAccording to reddit comments on Meltdown, "Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It" is considered a good book for several reasons: 1. Insightful analysis: The book offers a deep exploration of why complex systems fail, drawing from real-life case studies across various industries such as aviation, finance, healthcare, and technology. It provides valuable insights into the underlying causes of system failures, ranging from human error to organizational issues. 2. Accessible to non-experts: Despite delving into complex concepts, the author, Chris Clearfield, and co-author, András Tilcsik, present the material in a clear and engaging manner. They use relatable examples that help readers understand how these failures can occur in their everyday lives, making the book accessible even to those without technical backgrounds. 3. Interdisciplinary approach: "Meltdown" draws on research from different fields, including cognitive psychology, engineering, and sociology, to provide a holistic understanding of system failures. This interdisciplinary approach enriches readers' comprehension of the subject matter by presenting diverse perspectives and contributing to a more comprehensive analysis. 4. Practical solutions: In addition to dissecting the causes of system failures, the book also offers practical strategies and recommendations to prevent such failures in the future. These actionable insights are valuable for individuals, organizations, and policymakers seeking to mitigate risks and improve the reliability of their systems. 5. Relevance to a wide audience: The concepts explored in "Meltdown" extend beyond specific industries or professions. Whether you work in engineering, management, finance, or any other field where systems and processes are involved, this book provides relevant and thought-provoking content that can broaden your perspective and prompt critical thinking about system reliability. Overall, "Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It" is highly regarded for its comprehensive analysis, accessibility,...

Join us as author Chris Clearfield shares with us insights from his most recent book "Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It" with co-host Gary Wong and our community members. Today, we are in the golden age of meltdowns. More and more of our systems are in the danger zone, but our ability to manage them hasn't quite caught up. The result: things fall apart. This book is for people to understand that preventing meltdowns is within their grasp.   Why do our systems fail and meltdowns occur? Why are safety systems the biggest single source of catastrophic failure in complex, tightly coupled systems? How can Dissent and Diversity help us avoid failure in a complex world? How can we make meltdowns less likely without involving painful trade-offs?   View book: https://amzn.to/3lFRAio (https://amzn.to/3lpi73n)

Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It by Chris Clearfield explores how complexity causes problems in modern systems and how individuals, organizations, and societies can prevent or mitigate the resulting failures. Meltdown was named a best book of the year by the Financial Times and won the National Business Book Award in 2019. In reviewing the book in The Wall Street Journal, concluded that: "Meltdown effectively conveys why addressing systemic failures is both difficult and essential: difficult because it's so much more comfortable to rely on gut instinct and trust familiar colleagues than to insist on structured approaches and solicit the views of others; essential because we are moving into the danger zone and need all the help we can get." Meltdown received the George R. Terry Book Award of the Academy of Management, granted annually to "the book judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to the global advancement of management knowledge during the last two years." The book also won the Thinkers50 Strategy Award in 2019 and was described as "one of the stand-out business books of the last decade." Get Notified: https://sendfox.com/redrisks #redrisks #redrisksmedia #linkedinlive

Larry and Dave chat with Chris Clearfield, author of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It. Chris is also the founder of System Logic, a boutique research and consulting firm that frequently works with lawyers and other legal professionals. Listen as Chris and our hosts talk extensively about goals, including Read more about Ep 73- The Truth About Goals[…]

We have a lot of devices – cellphones, tablets, laptops – and they all need to be charged up constantly. How much does that cost? And how much does it cost to run a television, light bulb or a Tesla every year? Listen to discover the answers. http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ekhf45ellkj/ipad-1-50-per-year/ It seems as if the truth has taken a beating in recent years. Your truth may not be my truth and then, of course, there is alternative truth. Huh? It’s time we take a closer look at what the truth is and isn’t. So joining me is Hector MacDonald, he is strategic communications consultant who has advised the leaders of some of the world’s top corporations as well as the British government. Hector is the author of a new book called TRUTH: How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape Our Reality (https://amzn.to/2pVUYs6) and I think you will find what he has to say very enlightening. Everyone has been worried about their breath on occasion. We all know what a huge turn-off bad breath can be. So I will let you in on some proven strategies to fight bad breath when you aren’t able to brush your teeth. I’ll also tell you a few myths about bad breath that may surprise you. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/03/cure-bad-breath_n_1126196.html You’ve heard of Murphy’s Law… Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But why is that so? Why do things go wrong? Whether it is your morning routine to get the kids off to school (which in my house OFTEN goes wrong) to how you do your job or cook Thanksgiving dinner to disastrous space shuttle launches – things can and do go wrong. Listen to Chris Clearfield, co-author of the book, Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It (https://amzn.to/2pZgPy3) as he delves into the science of failure. You’ll discover how failure works and more importantly how you can learn from failure to prevent it from happening again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Larry and Dave interview Chris Clearfield, founder of System Logic and co-author of the book MELTDOWN: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It. Chris discusses how failure might come about, and how it can be avoided. Learn tips on how to cut through complexity and refine your business.

In this episode we sit down with Chris Clearfield, author of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Clearfield, author of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It, talks to FM magazine senior editor Drew Adamek about how the coronavirus pandemic is exposing complexity in global supply chains, trade, and economies. Clearfield offers advice on how finance professionals can improve their strategic decision-making in the face of this complexity.

Host Mitch Joel speaks with Chris Clearfield, the co-author of this year's award-winning book. Chris and András Tilcsik are the authors of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It. They put businesses' biggest mistakes—and the systems that caused them—under the microscope, and look at the role complexity plays in fueling them. But Meltdown doesn't point fingers: Chris and András pull apart these public missteps to troubleshoot solutions, in the hope that we can avoid repeating them. Chris speaks with Mitch about what he and András call ‘the paradox of progress'—the more modern and capable our systems are, the more vulnerable they are to unexpected meltdowns—and even to corruption and misconduct. But with our systems, and our lives, only getting more complicated, what can we do to avoid meltdowns? And when there's so much complexity to point to, who's really to blame when something goes wrong? Join the conversation and learn more about the 2019 finalists by tweeting with #NBBAward. Produced by Allie Graham for Church+State Podcasts.

Business gurus Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik share lessons learned from Facebook's IPO, why we should hang onto our old cars, and why ugly designs can make us safer. Chris and András' latest book is Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It.

Disastrous events take place all the time, but could many be prevented? For example, could discount retailer, Target, have spared thousands of people their jobs rather than close 58 of its Canadian stores? Could the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe have been avoided? Chris Clearfield, co-author with Andras Tilcsik of the book, Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It, sees a paradox at work in these events, that is, increasingly complex systems resulting in greater vulnerability. As he walks us through similar meltdowns that have taken place across organizations like, Enron and Three Mile Island, as well as events like the Oscars, he shares steps we can take to anticipate, and even avoid, these disasters. A former derivatives trader, Chris worked in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. He’s written about catastrophic failure, technology, and finance for The Guardian, Forbes, and the Harvard Kennedy School Review. In this interview Chris answers questions like: Why do meltdowns increase as systems grow more complicated? What advantages do diverse groups have when it comes to avoiding failures? What are the two biggest factors that contribute to most large-scale disasters? How does “tight coupling” contribute to meltdowns? What led to Starbuck’s infamous social media meltdown? How did snafus in UK post offices result in post masters spending time in jail? How has the Internet of things (IoT) increased the chance of meltdowns? In what ways have companies like Enron used complexity to their advantage? Why did Airbus 330 pilots trade sleek design for the more workmanlike Boeing 737? How can premortems help us anticipate and avoid failures in our work? What does the Flint water disaster have to teach us about our cognitive biases? Why is it so important for us to pay attention to small problems as they arise? Which is more important for preventing meltdowns, people who speak up or leaders who listen? How can families take advantage of agile work practices to up their game? What do flight crews have to teach us about workplace communication? Links to Topics Mentioned in the Podcast @ChrisClearfield Charles Perrow Three Mile Island accident Whiplash by Joi Ito and interview link on Curious Minds SPIES decision-making method Superforcasting by Philip Tetlock and Dan Gardner Performing a Project Premortem by Gary Klein Daniel Kahneman Flint Water Crisis Marlys Christianson Agile Practices for Families If you enjoy the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes - your ratings help others find their next podcast. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. And thank you for listening and sharing! Thank you, as well, to our producer and editor, Rob Mancabelli, and to our logo designer, Vanida Vae. www.gayleallen.net LinkedIn @GAllenTC

The Three Mile Island disaster forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. It absolutely dominated the news cycle. It led to a complete rethinking of nuclear energy. And it all stemmed from a plumbing problem, a valve that didn’t shut.  But the Three Mile Island accident isn’t the only meltdown caused by a seemingly small issue that snowballed into a gigantic disaster. To find out exactly how this happens, we talked with Chris Clearfield, co-author of “Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It.”

What does the 2007 -2008 financial crisis, the Fukushima nuclear accident, Three Mile Island, and Deepwater Horizon all have in common? The small things. Or rather, lots of tightly coupled small things that are overlooked, ignored or covered up. Accidents waiting to happen. In Deep Survival, Lawrence Gonzalez, writes about the fact that accidents don’t just happen, they are assembled carefully, piece by piece. And if just one single piece is missing, the accident simply doesn’t happen. Risk is unavoidable but accidents aren't.   Our world is filled with countless near-misses and close calls, and the truth is, most of the time we never even know how close we came to this or that accident or disaster. This is even truer at the organizational/institutional levels, where risk and complexity combine with organizational culture to increase both the likelihood and the impact of catastrophic failure. My guest on this podcast is Chris Clearfield. Chris brings a novel approach to the study of the challenges posed by risk and complexity. He’s a science geek and reformed derivatives trader, but more recently he’s the founder of System Logic, an independent research and consulting firm dedicated to understanding risk and its interaction with organizational factors. He’s also the co-author, with András Tilcsik, of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail, and What We Can do About it, which is the topic of our show today. This isn't a conversation just about system failures and why they happen; it's also about what we can do about those failures, about how we can better prepare for, and even prevent many such accidents and failures from happening. “The same kind of culture and decision making that led to the financial crisis also led to BP" - Chris Clearfield  Complex systems generate risk (and fail) in ways that are fundamentally different from the kinds of risks and failures our species evolved to deal with over millions of years, and that the new risk landscape we face requires a new approach to risk management, and really, an entirely new organizational culture. Chris was very insightful during the conversation, as he discussed the emergent properties of many system-wide failures. Many of these disasters were emergent in those systems in the same way as the 2009 financial crisis was “of the system and not an anomaly.” “What would have to be in place for something really bad to happen?" Checklists and Pre-mortems After talking with Chris, I find myself thinking much more in terms of checklists and “pre-mortems” and the like. It’s like we spend most of our lives driving along a twisty mountain highway at night, totally clueless about just how close to the edge of the 500-foot cliff we really came around that last turn. I’m reflecting more and more on what would have to be in place for something bad to go wrong, say driving your car or in managing online bank accounts. What would have to be in place for something really bad to happen and then kind of going back and mentally reverse-engineering and mitigating those things, those pieces, one by one. I hope you find my conversation with Chris as interesting as I did.   Some of the other subjects we discuss include: Why systems fail and how some of these companies handled or weathered different crises much better than others; Tight coupling—where connections come together in a way that’s very hard to stop The most prevalent cognitive biases associated with meltdowns  Black Swan events—and how to find the feathers that predict such events Pre-established criteria in decision making The value of dissent Power cues—including a fascinating example Chris gives of a study they did with physicians’ around body language with patients; The S.P.I.E.S Tool, that goes hand in hand with the Annie Duke episode if you're curious and want to listen to that regarding Thinking in Bets. In other words, we talked about a ton of really interesting and useful subjects, and hopefully, I've “salted” this intro enough to make you thirsty for the whole episode.

Plane crashes. Oil well blowouts. Even Facebook's user-data scandal. Failures are everywhere. Can we see them coming in time to prevent them? Chris Clearfield is the co-author of "MELTDOWN: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It". He talks with KCBS Radio anchors - and "10 Questions" podcast hosts - Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor in this special edition of KCBS In Depth.

Steve talks with Chris Clearfield about Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It, which he wrote with Andras Tilcsik. The book 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. The result is an eye-opening, empowering, and entirely original work. 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. Conor talks with Steve Toutonghi about his new book Side Life. Set in Seattle, Steve Toutonghi's second novel is a dazzling, intriguing, and philosophical blend of literary science fiction. A native of Seattle, Steve Toutonghi studied fiction and poetry while completing a BA in Anthropology at Stanford. After various professional forays, he began a career in technology that led him from Silicon Valley back to Seattle. He is the author of a previous novel, Join.

“We are a president-obsessed nation, so much so that we undermine the very idea of our constitutional democracy,” writes John Dickerson in his May cover story in The Atlantic. “No one man—or woman—can possibly represent the varied, competing interests of 327 million citizens.” Have we heaped so much upon the president that the job has become impossible? Is Trump testing the office in valuable ways? And if the presidency is broken, how do we fix it? Links - "The Hardest Job in the World" (John Dickerson, May 2018 Issue) - “Scott Pruitt Bypassed the White House to Give Big Raises to Favorite Aides” (Elaina Plott and Robinson Meyer, April 3, 2018) - "Letter to Joseph Hooker from Lincoln, January 26, 1863" (Library of Congress) - Educated (Tara Westover, 2018) - Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It (Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik, 2018) - Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders, 2017) - “There’s Something Funny About Tiffany Haddish” (Caity Weaver, GQ, March 26, 2018) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Three Mile Island disaster caused hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their homes. It absolutely dominated the news cycle. It led to a complete rethinking of nuclear energy. And it all stemmed from a plumbing problem, a valve that didn’t shut. But the Three Mile Island accident isn’t the only meltdown caused by a seemingly small issue that snowballed into a gigantic disaster. To find out exactly how this happens, we talked with Chris Clearfield, co-author of “Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About it.”

Plane crashes. Oil well blowouts. Even Facebook's user-data scandal. Failures are everywhere. Can we see them coming in time to prevent them? Chris Clearfield is the co-author of "MELTDOWN: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It". He talks with Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh Taylor on Episode 8 of "10 Questions With Stan and Susan".

We have a lot of devices – cellphones, tablets, laptops – and they all need to be charged up constantly. How much does that cost? And how much does it cost to run a television, light bulb or a Tesla every year? Listen to discover the answers. (http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ekhf45ellkj/ipad-1-50-per-year/) It seems as if the truth has taken a beating in recent years. Your truth may not be my truth and then, of course, there is alternative truth. Huh? It’s time we take a closer look at what the truth is and isn’t. So joining me is Hector MacDonald, he is strategic communications consultant who has advised the leaders of some of the world’s top corporations as well as the British government. Hector is the author of a new book called TRUTH: How the Many Sides to Every Story Shape Our Reality (https://amzn.to/2pVUYs6) and I think you will find what he has to say very enlightening. Everyone has been worried about their breath on occasion. We all know what a huge turn-off bad breath can be. So I will let you in on some proven strategies to fight bad breath when you aren’t able to brush your teeth. I’ll also tell you a few myths about bad breath that may surprise you. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/03/cure-bad-breath_n_1126196.html) You’ve heard of Murphy’s Law… Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. But why is that so? Why do things go wrong? Whether it is your morning routine to get the kids off to school (which in my house OFTEN goes wrong) to how you do your job or cook Thanksgiving dinner to disastrous space shuttle launches – things can and do go wrong. Listen to Chris Clearfield, co-author of the book Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It (https://amzn.to/2pZgPy3) as he delves into the science of failure. You'll discover how failure works and more importantly how you can learn from failure to prevent it from happening again.

On The Gist, forget Stormy Daniels. The Kushners’ massive loan deals are where the real dirt is at. In the interview, the world’s growing complexity can be measured in dusty cables, useless features, and lines of code. Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik talk about the problems that snowball when even the smallest thing goes wrong. Clearfield and Tilcsik are the authors of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It. In the Spiel, any census that asks people about their citizenship status will be pricey and inaccurate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On The Gist, forget Stormy Daniels. The Kushners’ massive loan deals are where the real dirt is at. In the interview, the world’s growing complexity can be measured in dusty cables, useless features, and lines of code. Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik talk about the problems that snowball when even the smallest thing goes wrong. Clearfield and Tilcsik are the authors of Meltdown: Why Our Systems Fail and What We Can Do About It. In the Spiel, any census that asks people about their citizenship status will be pricey and inaccurate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices