Coordination Collapse Under Pressure

Definition: When stress triggers dominance, secrecy, and shortcut authority—rules become optional.

Why it matters: Pressure is the test; what fails under pressure wasn’t governance.

Quick Diagnostic

• Safeguards are bypassed “just this once.”
• Emergency authority expands without sunsets.
• Fear replaces verification.
  Cost of delay: crisis governance becomes permanent governance.

Problem

Under threat, humans revert to primal coordination: dominance, secrecy, and loyalty. Systems must be designed so constraints survive stress.

Mechanism

Shock → urgency → exceptions → centralized authority → suppression → drift hardens → backlash

Early Indicators

• Rapid exception growth during stress.
• Centralization of decisions and information.
• Reduced transparency and shortened review.
• Punitive response to dissent.
• “No time for process” norms.

Examples

• Civilizational: emergency powers persist.
• Institutional: crisis response overrides due process.
• Org: incident response becomes culture.

Control Opportunity

Design

• Predefined crisis protocols with constrained authorities.
• Escalation ladders with documented triggers.
• Exception budgets + automatic sunsets.
• Independent crisis oversight (real power).
• Post-crisis reform loops that restore constraints.

Measurement

• Emergency exception count and duration.
• Centralization index during incidents.
• Transparency lag metrics.
• Post-event corrective action completion rate.

Failure mode if missing
Pressure becomes the justification for permanent bypass.

Core Question

What rules survive pressure?

Maps to Patterns

Crisis as Audit • Authority Without Friction • Bad News Suppression • Exception Drift

Related Problems

Charisma Drift • Information Suppression • Exception Normalization

Routing

Hub • Drift • Controls (Social) • Daily Brief • Field Notes