Fly the weather not the forecast

Making decisions based on stale data is inexcusable. There's nothing more dangerous than making a decision and praying that things will magically work out. Actively acknowledging that things can and will go wrong is an important first step to ensuring that you take real-time data into account in decision making.

It's heart-breaking to hear stories of aviation accidents that could have easily been prevented had junior pilots felt comfortable speaking up. While these examples are extreme, the general principle holds in other situations with formal hierarchies. People are typically hesitant to share bad news when they feel like it could reflect poorly on them or their team because they don't want to get in trouble.

To protect ourselves from this false sense of security, we need to make it acceptable to report failure.

Recommended reading: Normal Accidents by Charles Perrow