Gospels of Failure

Yet the report's recommendations make clear that the Times' problems were bigger than just Raines. Rather, they plead for strengthening the social network at the Times in order to share information more effectively. "Too much information about matters large and small," the report laments, "is locked in too few brains." The report's authors, many of them reporters and editors themselves, called for meetings that were more inclusive of all levels of the organization, intranet tools for seeking out resident experts, and office hours for management, similar to those of university professors, in order to open communication pathways. Members requested more informal brainstorming among reporters and editors in different departments, more cross-departmental meetings, and temporary assignments on different desks.

These seem like simple things, but they're actually tough to pull off. "I think people often underestimate the amount of resourcefulness that's required to proactively shape new communication patterns," says Niko Canner, a cofounder of management-consulting firm Katzenbach Partners. "Do people understand the way to communicate information so that they will get value from an exchange with a conversational partner they're not used to talking with? Can they build those new behaviors into the day-to-day of how they do their work?"

Valdis Krebs, a developer of software that maps social networks, agrees. "If there's not a network connecting two departments, then one can bring the best data in the world to the other and it won't be trusted." Krebs uses his software to help clients map out who knows whom within an organization -- he calls the maps "organizational X-rays" -- and then does something decidedly less high-tech. He introduces people on the borders of the networks, creating opportunities for them to work together. Over time, "through day-to-day work, we learn to trust each other," he says. "And when you get upset, I learn to trust that, too."

It's an intriguing, potentially important, exercise. But in real life, at times of real failure, those social networks won't work unless leaders let them. When people bypass the organization's hierarchy, the manager's instinctual response can be to thwart them, even punish them for breaking the chain of command.

In the face of failure, however, leaders must embrace the unconventional. They have to allow communications at the periphery -- and have the discipline and humility to listen for notes that sound off-key. They must shape cultures that are open both to the possibility of failure and to the need to learn when problems do occur. And they, like all of us, have to imagine the unimaginable. And they should start now. Because, as Richard Clarke warned in his 2001 memo, "That future day could happen at any time."

Jena McGregor is Fast Company's associate editor.