Success Strategy: Avoid the Error Chain

“Error chain—a series of mistakes that may lead to an accident or incident. Two basic principles generally associated with the creation of an error chain are: (1) one bad decision often leads to another; and (2) as a string of bad decisions grows, it reduces the number of subsequent alternatives for continued safe flight. Aeronautical decision making is intended to break the error chain before it can cause an accident or incident.”

(Powered Parachute Flying Handbook, U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Flight Standards Service, 2007.)

Although this is an aviation term, it provides excellent advice for all of us for our daily lives! How many times have we made a bad decision? How often has that led to more bad decisions? Of course, the more bad decisions we make, the harder it is to resolve the situation.

If we can stop as soon as we realize we have made a bad decision, analyze what we did and why, and make a good decision instead of another bad one, we can break the “error chain.”