Feilkraft

Feilkraft is a term used in some Scandinavian discussions of systems theory and risk management to describe a hypothetical emergent force that biases processes toward erroneous outcomes. It refers to how small mistakes can be amplified by interactions within a system, potentially leading to cascading failures or degraded quality.

The word is a compound of feila or feil, meaning "error," and kraft, meaning "force" or "power." It is primarily found in Norwegian and Danish technical and educational literature, and may appear in Swedish contexts as feilkraft or felkraft. As a concept, it is generally treated as a metaphor rather than a formal physical quantity.

The theoretical basis of feilkraft is that errors do not occur in isolation but propagate through feedback loops, noise, and human factors. Factors such as cognitive biases, information asymmetry, time pressure, and organizational culture can contribute to feilkraft by increasing the likelihood that a small mistake influences subsequent steps. The concept distinguishes between the direction of error propagation, the magnitude of its spread, and the system’s resilience to dampen or absorb disruptions.

Applications of the idea include safety engineering, quality management, and process design. Feilkraft is used to frame discussions about conditions that raise error propensity, identify points where mistakes originate, and guide interventions such as improved training, redundancy, checklists, and process safeguards.

Criticism and status: Feilkraft is not a universally standardized term and is treated by many as a heuristic rather than a precise metric. It can be a helpful narrative for discussing error propagation but should be complemented with established methods and measurements in practice.