Cultures with Requisite Imagination

Abstract

When a large system is developed, there are always, in the early stages, a great number of serious problems with it. In some organizations these serious problems are quickly noted and rapidly attacked. In others they are hidden, skirted, or only half-solved. If we call the former organizations effective and the latter ineffective, we are led to an obvious question: what distinguishes the effective from the ineffective ones? The differences in performance are apparent; we need to explore their causes. In this paper I will use engineering examples from the 19th and 20th centuries to develop a more detailed picture of the kinds of differences that exist between those organizations likely to vet their systems successfully and those unlikely to do so.