Opinion | ‘Black box thinking’ and the descent of Jet Airways

Britain’s de Havilland Comet I was the world’s first commercially produced jetliner, but it was grounded after a number of mysterious crashes in the 1950s. A detailed, massive investigation identified the flaw: Hairline cracks from the plane’s square windows spread across the fuselage and caused the whole machine to come apart. That’s why planes now have oval windows. The more significant consequence of the investigation, though, was the installation of a near-indestructible flight data recorder, the black box, in every aircraft. The aviation industry is remarkable for its good safety record—and that’s because mistakes are learned from, rather than concealed.

It’s the kind of thinking that has entered management parlance—the term “black box thinking” was coined by Matthew Syed. The idea that makes black box thinking so compelling is: Success is possible only when we confront mistakes.