Normalization of Deviance has been discussed in the aviation community for years
Normalization of Deviance has been discussed in the aviation community for years. Normalization of Deviance (NOD) occurs when standard procedures are deviated from over and over again without any negative consequences. The deviation becomes so routine it is normalized, making the original procedure ineffective. Another term that is frequently used along with NOD is “Procedural Drift”, which is as it sounds, is when we begin to drift from a procedure until the original procedure is no longer executed as intended. This not only weakens the benefits of the procedure but can also create additional, unintended hazards. The NOD phenomenon has been implicated in too many accidents and was identified as a major factor in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
