How to promote curiosity, experimentation, and learning – without the blame
Blaming
is a natural human reflex. When things go wrong, we feel the impulse to
defend ourselves from repercussions. However, playing the blame game –
the urge to find a scapegoat – overshadows the need to address systemic
issues.
Blaming has become pervasive in the corporate world.
Finger-pointing is an easy way to deflect responsibility, even for minor
mistakes. Companies need to replace blame with inquiry to promote
learning, accountability, and innovation. They need to build a
blame-less culture.
Companies can’t get rid of a blame
culture without understanding the root cause. Blaming is a knee-jerk
defense mechanism. Instead of admitting our faults, blaming someone else
for our mistakes is always easier.
We're
hardwired to use blame to release negative feelings, especially guilt.
Author Brené Brown describes this human tendency to blame others as "a
way to discharge pain and discomfort." It’s a quick escape route to
resolve tensions and protect our self-esteem.
Our propensity to blame can be influenced by personality traits and context.
The Fundamental Attribution Error suggests
that we often blame others due to their intrinsic characteristics while
attributing our own actions to external circumstances.
Blamers
tend to have difficulties with emotion regulation. Studies have found
that employees who are satisfied with their jobs are more likely to be
good "corporate citizens," while receiving blame for something they
didn't do can lead to withdrawal from work.
A
culture of blame can lead to reduced collaboration, impaired emotional
well-being, and increased turnover rates. Instead of learning from
mistakes, blame encourages employees to hide their errors.
Scapegoating
often gains momentum when leaders evade personal accountability. By
using blame to hide their inadequacies or errors, a culture of blame
quickly spreads toxic behaviors across the organization.
What Is a Blame-Less Culture?
Blame-less
doesn’t mean the absence of blame but replacing blame with inquiry.
It’s about stopping finger-pointing to avoid systemic accountability.
In
a blame-less or "just" culture, the spotlight shifts from individual
fallibility to systemic improvement. Blame might never go away
completely, but it shouldn’t be the default reaction.
The
underlying belief of a blame-less culture is that mistakes are typically
the result of faulty company cultures rather than the fault of
one or more individuals. Addressing systemic issues requires tackling
the root of the problem rather than finding a culprit.
A
blameless culture doesn't mean a lack of accountability. On the
contrary, when teams own their mistakes, they learn from them,
increasing ownership and responsibility.
Receiving criticism
after a poor performance may not be pleasant, but it's better than
receiving no feedback at all. If someone makes a significant mistake and
no one says anything, they may think something’s wrong – or even feel
paranoid.
How can your team or organization transition from a blaming to an ownership culture?
Seven Strategies for Building an Owning Culture
1. Focus on the System, Not the Individual
Organizations
often react to a mistake with a judgmental mindset, looking to find a
culprit. However, individual errors are often just the tip of the
iceberg. Shift from 'Who messed up?' to 'What in our system allowed this
mistake to happen?’
Toyota's
5 Why's practice encourages digging deep to uncover the systemic issues
that give rise to mistakes. Repeating “why” five times means the nature
of the problem, as well as its solution, becomes clear.
The
technique was initially developed by Sakichi Toyoda, who stated, "By
repeating why five times, the nature of the problem as well as its
solution becomes clear.
"This
idea underscores that a punitive environment sees errors as symptoms,
while blameless cultures consider systemic issues as opportunities for
improvement.
Check out a related post: The "5 Whys"-- Getting to the Root of a Problem Quickly
2. Make it Safe to Raise Issues
Creating
an environment where employees are comfortable speaking out about
issues is pivotal for robust problem-solving and innovation. Feeling
secure about bringing up concerns, errors, or uncertainties will help
prevent larger problems.
Volkswagen’s Diselgate resulted
from an authoritarian management style that fostered a climate of fear.
Many executives believe that the culture of silence resulted from
pressure to solve problems quickly rather than doing a thorough
analysis.
In
the aftermath of the scandal, Bernd Osterloh, a VW supervisory board
member, reflected: "We need a culture in which it’s possible and
permissible to argue with your superior about the best way to go."
Reward people for raising issues and sharing what they learn after a mistake.
Check out a related post: The Best Leaders Make it Safe to Tell the Truth
3. Build a Culture of Compassionate Caring
Compassionate
caring refers to a sense of warmth, connection, and affection between
employees. It can lead to significant increases in team collaboration
and job satisfaction. This is not about office friendships but rather a
more profound, emotional tethering that includes caring for others'
well-being.
This could include starting the day greeting co-workers, asking about their family, or getting coffee before work begins.
Compassionate
care is shown when colleagues who are together day in and day out, ask
and care about each other’s work and even non-work issues,” Professor
Sigal Barsade says. “They are careful of each other’s feelings. They
show compassion when things don’t go well.”
Southwest
Airlines places a great deal of emphasis on building a culture of 'LUV'
among its employees: How staff interact with each other and customers
leads to exceptional customer service.
Check out a related post: Empathy: An Essential Leadership Skill
4. Conduct Blameless Postmortems
While
postmortems have become more common in many companies, the concept
of a "blame-less" postmortem is relatively revolutionary.
Companies like Etsy, Atlassian, and Google have implemented this method to discuss and learn from failure – without the blame.
In
a blame-less postmortem, the emphasis is on identifying what went wrong
systemically, not who messed up. Etsy’s CEO, Chad Dickerson, wanted to
shift the conversation from “Who’s the CEO going to fire?” to learning
from mistakes. This practice has helped Etsy employees take more risks
and move faster.
As
Dickerson told Business Insider, “One of the things I allowed people to
do is make mistakes more freely. The best way to learn to ride a bike
is to ride the bike and fall down.”
Check out a related post: Calling a Timeout and Getting Aligned is an Essential Skill for High-Performing Teams
5. Promote Autonomy and Ownership
Accountability is important, but ownership creates a more profound impact. A culture of ownership replaces blame with questions.
Managers
often expect people to become more accountable without giving them the
power to make decisions. With freedom comes accountability. By
distributing decision-making rights to those closest to the work, teams
often benefit from increased speed and better outcomes.
Amazon
has adopted the principle of Toyota’s Andon Cord, giving support agents
full authority to "pull the cord" when they suspect a problem with the
inventory. This has helped prevent issues from escalating – without
involving managers.
Check out a related post: Developing Accountable People By Building a Culture of Ownership
6. Criticize in Private and Praise in Public
Handling blame privately preserves an individual's dignity and keeps morale high.
Kim
Scott, author of the book Radical Candor, explains: “A good rule of
thumb for feedback is praise in public, criticize in private. Public
criticism tends to trigger a defensive reaction and make it much harder
for a person to accept they've made a mistake and to learn from it.”
This
rings true for how criticism is best managed: privately. Direct,
private conversations preserve individual dignity and avoid poisoning
team morale.
Managers
are human and sometimes lose control of their emotions, especially when
things go wrong. However, smart leaders know how to manage their anger.
Instead, they ask powerful questions to turn issues into something
constructive rather than blaming.
Check out a related post: 9 Tips for Building a Feedback Culture
7. Reward Collective Accomplishments
Companies
often encourage individualistic, bad behaviors – usually to achieve
short-term results. For example, only a few A performers get all the
praise, even though the whole team contributed to the results, creating a
cutthroat environment.
Companies get what they reward: Blame is often a defense mechanism for people to
protect themselves from inequity. To shift your culture from blame to
blameless, the team should be equally accountable for victories and
failures.
Research
shows that group-based reward systems outperform individual or mixed
incentives, producing more collaborative behavior. Rewarding team
accomplishments reinforces the idea that collective success is more
important than individual glory. This encourages shared accountability
and lessens the impulse to blame other teammates when things go wrong.
By
following these strategies, companies can shift from a blame
culture to one of learning and ownership. Although this transformation
is not immediate, resisting the urge to blame others is always a wise
first step.
To your greater success and fulfillment,
Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
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