Buh Bye Blame Game

When things go wrong at the office, it’s easy to point the finger.  So easy in fact that it’s the default action.  It’s also counterproductive.  Finger pointing creates an atmosphere of fear that destroys trust.  It’s helpful to identify what went wrong, but I propose that instead of playing the blame game, we adopt a different attitude:

It’s no one person’s fault and it’s everyone’s responsibility.

Generally speaking, a flop of some sort requires multiple failed factors along the way.  Whether you’re creating a shoe, a brochure or a hedge fund, your product goes through a lifecycle of creation.  Step by step, the product starts as a concept and then ultimately becomes a tangible finished item for customer consumption.  This is called the Concept to Completion Lifecycle.  In this lifecycle, there are multiple touch points with different people contributing their piece of the whole.

Let’s step back a bit and look at these people contributing their piece of the whole.  In the abstract conversation of employee expectation, it’s easy to say we expect a commitment to deliver 100% at all times.  But we know our game cannot possibly be at one consistent level at all times, and certainly not at the highest level of all.  A smart manager knows that the best scenario is when team members even each other out.  (A is have a low energy day; B is having a high energy day.)

What this means is that if there are 10 touch points in the lifecycle of that product, it’s possible that 5 of them are low energy and 5 are high.  We’re all counting on the high energy folks to catch things missed by low energy.

This is true teamwork; people helping each other without question.  There is no back stabbing here; they have each other’s backs.  They look out for one another and for the product.

In this model, the team is eager to find what went awry so they can proactively ensure it doesn’t happen again.  They live the motto:

It’s no one person’s fault and it’s everyone’s responsibility.