Dr. Bill Corcoran's "Non Answer" Explanation.

Dr. Bill Corcoran

 February 10, 2016 at 5:42 am

The non-answer is a nonresponsive reply to a question. A non-answer can take the form of “I already told you the answer”, the form of an answer to a different question, or the form of an evasion.

A non-answer is slick and sleazy. It turns the stomach. A non-answer is like the tarpaulin over the pick-up truck cargo bed on the way to the landfill; it covers everything required by law and conceals the trash and filth.

Non-answers are a form of bullying. They make use of a position of power to stiff-arm the concerned questioner. They exploit asymmetric relationships.

Non-answers are a form of intellectual corruption. They impede honest dialogue. They are dismissively disrespectful of due process. Historically, non-answers have been used by intellectually corrupt regimes to create a chilling effect on honest dissent.

Once an organization perceives that it has used the non-answer to avoid admitting prior incompetence, lack of integrity, noncompliance, and/or lack of transparency, a precedent has been set. The non-answer becomes an accepted way of life, a part of the intellectually corrupt culture that pervades the agency. When management accepts non-answers to stakeholders it provides a convenient way to evade accountability.

Once the agency accepts non-answers to its critics it begins to accept non-answers from those it oversees. What were the roles of non-answers in agency embarrassing shortfalls such as the Callaway Xenon Shutdown, the Peach Bottom Sleeping Guards and the Davis-Besse 2002 Imprudent Extension?

Non-answers erode public confidence in the fundamental technologies. By not expressing outrage at non-answers to stakeholders the industries are driving nails into their own coffins.