[Verse 1] At NASA they saw foam falling down From the shuttle tank, hitting the wing Engineers raised flags but management frowned Said it's happened before, it's a normal thing The warning signs were crystal clear But normalized through every year [Chorus] When systems grow complex and tight Normal accidents take their flight Deviance becomes the norm Perfect storms begin to form You can see it coming but you still don't act That's how large organizations crack [Verse 2] Morton Thiokol knew the O-rings would fail In cold weather launches, the seals would break But production pressure told a different tale Challenger launched for political sake The sociology of making bad calls When institutional pressure enthralls [Chorus] When systems grow complex and tight Normal accidents take their flight Deviance becomes the norm Perfect storms begin to form You can see it coming but you still don't act That's how large organizations crack [Bridge] Perrow taught us coupling's curse Interactive complexity makes it worse No single person chose to fail But tight systems tell this tale Vaughan showed how we drift away From safety rules day by day [Verse 3] Columbia burned up coming home Investigation found the cultural blame Foam strikes weren't left alone But treated like a routine game The Board Report made it plain Organizational failure's stain [Chorus] When systems grow complex and tight Normal accidents take their flight Deviance becomes the norm Perfect storms begin to form You can see it coming but you still don't act That's how large organizations crack [Outro] Strategic mistakes they all can see But culture blinds reality Risk gets normalized each day Until disaster finds its way
← Innovation and Institutional Inertia | Defense and National Security Specific →