Better Products Need Better Cultures (GM Ignition Switch)
- Patrick Hillberg
- Aug 18
- 1 min read
Idea in Brief:
When products result in scandals, an immediate response is to find a bad actor to be blamed, but this fails to recognize how bad actions are the result of cultural dysfunction.
Products are developed based on requirements, the completion of which are decomposed across many groups (for example, the Systems Engineering "Vee-model"). It is this decomposition which creates dysfunction and leads to scandal.
This article details how the decomposition approach led to the General Motors ignition switch recall. It further discusses how the legal team which investigated the scandal reinforced the “bad-actor” fallacy, and it provides a counter-narrative to the legal report.
Additional References:
GM Fires 15 Employees Over Recall Failures (WSJ), which discusses the failure to change part numbers, but not the cultural impacts as to why the failure may have occurred.
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