Marilyn the manager was exasperated.
“If we can’t blame people for screwing things up how are we ever going to hold people accountable? The place will descend into chaos” she moaned.
Having a no-blame culture is only half of the picture. The other half is that there is full responsibility. Everyone in the organisation has full responsibility for the good operation of the business.
In a no-blame culture when you notice something going wrong,
you fix it if you can. If you can’t fix it, you speak up:
alert those concerned that there is a problem and let those responsible act to fix it.
First, create a culture where anyone can speak up and talk about difficult issues. For this you need skills to manage the emotions that are involved. When you learn to hold difficult conversations it becomes easier to find out what the problems are, and how they can be fixed. Without blame.
The alternative to blame is full responsibility and no-blame.
See: Blame …don’t do it
These are skills we teach in the Thriving Under Fire programme.
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