The first thing you do to reduce risk .... is: loosen the coupling between sources of effects. Create buffers; remove dependencies; install redundancy.
- This is a concept from System Engineering (buffers, dampers, redundancy; but also loose tolerances; fuses; barriers and walls ... anything that inhibits propagation of effects)
- This is a concept from scheduling (Critical Chain by Goldratt; buffers to critical path)
- This is a concept from the Theory of Constraints (also by Goldratt; manage the coupling constraints between processes)
- This is a concept supported by elementary statistics (shift right bias)
- This is a concept from anti-fragile theory (by Taleb; in effect, shock absorbers)
- This is the concept of the "normal accident" (by Perrow, aka: stuff happens! So, expect that it will)
And, this coupling idea applies not only to physical systems but to organizations. (Again, Charles Perrow). Organizations are systems, after all. One miscue in an organizational element is to be absorbed and isolated from other. In an extreme: quarantine.
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