When the shuttle Challenger was destroyed in 1986, poor NASA culture was significant in the events the led to the disaster. NASA made serious changes to their space program to ensure human life was at the least risk possible. But in 2003, the shuttle Columbia suffered a disaster and all hands were lost upon re-entry. The ensuing investigation specified that "NASA organizational culture had as much to do with this accident as the foam." This talk will look at how culture affects risk in organizations, using both the Challenger and Columbia as examples, and talk about the difficulties of risk management, and give guidance on how to deal with and overcome difficult risk decisions, such as the final decision by NASA not to inform the astronauts they were doomed. Takeaways will be how to understand how culture impacts risk, what you can do about it, and how to make better risk decisions.

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