Practise the failure mode you cannot afford to discover live

When it fits

• When a skill works on the happy path but predictable edge conditions could cause a serious miss.

When to avoid it

• Do not create dangerous real incidents for practice. Rare-case training can also overweight rare events, so preserve base-rate context.

Why it matters

List high-consequence but plausible failure modes, then build safe simulations or sanitized cases that require detection and recovery. Practice the cue and the response, not merely a warning about the risk. Keep rare-case drills proportionate to likelihood and consequence.

Steps

1. Name a plausible failure mode and the earliest detectable cue.
2. Create a safe simulation or sanitized case.
3. Practise the decision or recovery step.
4. Return to ordinary cases so rare scenarios do not distort base-rate judgment.

Check your result

The learner detects the injected failure and follows the intended recovery path without needing the answer.

Keep this limit in mind

• Do not create dangerous real incidents for practice. Rare-case training can also overweight rare events, so preserve base-rate context.