Crisis Amnesia
Crisis Amnesia (n.) The organizational tendency to forget lessons from the last crisis within weeks of resolving it.
Explanation
During a crisis, everyone agrees things must change. Post-mortems are written. Action items are assigned. Within 6 weeks, urgency fades. The action items stall. The next crisis finds the same gaps.
Operational Example
After a major data breach, the company commits to weekly security reviews. By month three, the reviews are monthly. By month six, they are quarterly. By month nine, they are cancelled.
Why It Matters
Crisis amnesia means organizations pay for the same failure repeatedly. Each crisis feels new because the lessons from the last one were never institutionalized.
What Most Teams Get Wrong
They treat post-mortems as closure instead of commitment. They archive lessons instead of implementing them.
What Strong Teams Do Differently
Assign post-mortem actions to named owners with deadlines. Review completion monthly. Never archive without implementation.