Groupthink.

Thirty-seven years ago today, a space shuttle disintegrated after takeoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

This tragedy happened due to one of the worst organizational decision-making biases ever discovered.

What happened, and how do we avoid this in tech?

The O-ring was patented almost 100 years before the Challenger crash. It's used to create a seal at the interface between two parts, like the joints of a solid rocket booster used to launch shuttles.

But there are different factors affecting seal quality, like temperature.

Record low temperatures on launch day meant a proper seal wasn't formed.

Hot pressurized gas leaked out to the propellant tank, which collapsed and threw the shuttle off course.

Aerodynamic forces tore it apart.

The shuttle's parts either disintegrated or crashed to the ground at hundreds of miles an hour.

Everyone on board was killed.

The thing is, this incident could've been avoided.

It happened due to "Groupthink," where a group of people engages in irrational, dysfunctional, and disastrous decision-making to maintain harmony and conformity within the group.

You see, NASA needed a public win.

The challenger was going to be the first time a civilian teacher joined a space mission.

That would boost public interest in a civilian space flight program and pad NASA's budgets.

The engineers who build the rocket boosters initially warned NASA of how the O-rings were tested and which temperature they could withstand.

But when it came time to give the red or green light for launch, the group retracted their objections and gave the green light.

The Challenger disintegrated less than two minutes from launch.

Why do people in groups behave this way?

And why should we in tech be particularly worried about this phenomenon?

Reason #1 - High group cohesiveness.

Such as a group of people from similar backgrounds. Who's all excited about the company's vision for the future. The meaning of the mission. The culture and its representations in fun t-shirts and boujie offsites.

Like in tech.

Reason #2 - Structural faults.

Such as a group that's insulated from the world, in "stealth mode," working from an SF apartment.

Or with a leader who isn't impartial - a founder who's completely invested in the company, maniacally focused on growing it.

Like in tech.

Reason #3 - Situation

High-stress high pressure, including high TIME pressure. External threats from competition. Recent failures that didn't work out.

You know, like in tech!

We are at GREAT risk of groupthink in tech. So what do you do? Here are three ideas.

1. Recruit a diverse team. Champion equity and inclusion. Celebrate diverse perspectives.

I truly hope that the wheels of progress on this topic won't remain as stuck in 2023.

We can't afford to continue like this.

2. Train people to have the toughest conversations.

I loved reading "Crucial Conversations." Highly recommended. Chapter 4 is particularly relevant.

When the stakes are high, we need to expand our toolkit in how we communicate and debate.

3. Conduct "Red Team" activities.

This is the practice of adversarial, counterfactual, alternative thinking.

It originated in the military, and it's a key set of tools to prevent phenomena like Groupthink from ever happening.

It's been 13 years since the shuttle program was shut down.

But tech and the field of UX will continue to grow rapidly.

We have high group cohesion, structural faults, and really tough situations. All the risk factors for Groupthink.

Let's honor those who died in the awful Challenger tragedy by fighting against the practice of Groupthink and eliminating as much bias as possible from our decision-making processes.

Thanks for reading Random Relationships, day 22/30. ??