Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership

Chapter 2. Simple Ideas, Complex Organizations

America's East Coast welcomed a crisp, sunny fall morning on September 11, 2001. For airline passengers in the Boston–Washington corridor, the perfect fall weather offered prospects of on-time departures and smooth flights. The promise would be broken for four flights, all bound for California. Like Pearl Harbor, 9/11 was a day that will live in infamy, a tragedy that changed America's sense of itself and the world. If we probe the how and why of 9/11, we find determined and resourceful terrorists, but we also find vulnerability and errors in organizations charged with detecting and preventing such catastrophes.

American Airlines flight 11 was first in the air, departing from Boston on time at 8:00 ...