85. Filters between information
reception and management
Any complex, breakable system will have
safeguards and detection apparatus to listen to signs of trouble. Value of
information is defined by its novelty and the ability of the whole system to
react to it. There are several filters in the way between reception of possible
danger signs and management with the authority to act on it.
The first filter is what the monitoring
system is designed to detect. This will be based on past events, and may not
pick up sudden or unanticipated changes. The second filter is psychological,
which consists of an aversion by technicians and management to information
owing to its strategic novelty or ambiguity. The third filter has to do with
limitations inherent in any hierarchical system; an officer that receives
certain information may lack sufficient power to officially recognize the
urgency of the situation or compel a superior to do anything about it. The
fourth filter is filter has to do with a connection between the warning signal
and what superiors are psychologically capable of recognizing as danger; it
must bear sufficient similarity to past signals or training on danger signals
to be recognized as worth taking action on.