6. Stark, Vincennes, RPD, and NDM
Channel: Adaptive Capacity Labs
Date: 2023-03-13

The destruction of the USS Stark in 1987 and, a year later, the shootdown of IranAir 655 by the USS VIncennes led to the elaboration of the current model of expert human decision making, Recognition Primed Decision making (RDP), and a broader view of decision making in the real world, Naturalistic Decision Making (NDM). RPD and NDM are novel ideas but also reactionary ones. They began as an attempt to bridge the gap between laboratory-based studies of problem solving and the situations confronting decision makers in the real world. Gary Klein and colleagues produced the clearest and most compelling description of how experts deal with high consequence, high complexity, time pressured, high uncertainty situations. 

The ideas were revolutionary and their implications profound.