How to Reverse the Blame Culture
Are you stuck in a situation where everyone blames everyone else as soon as anything goes wrong?
Many people are. Very often, to stop this kind of thing, you hear talk of a “No-Blame” culture. The problem with this is it just doesn’t work.
So what do you do instead?
What you need to do is start a culture of “Responsibility”. This is a place where people take responsibility for their actions. But it can be difficult to develop this when people are used to being blamed for mistakes.
To get over that, you need to make it clear that people will be supported in their actions and that you will stand by them and help them when there are problems.
How To Stop The Blame Culture
The most convincing way to go about this is to do it. So you need to find someone who has made a mistake and actively support him or her.
An Example
Many years ago, when I was trying to overcome this issue with my team, I tried lots of things, but this was the only one that worked.
I identified a woman who had told me that she thought she’d made a mistake on seven of the units she’d completed that morning. It turned out she had. I worked out what it would have cost us if she hadn’t noticed or had just not told us. It was hundreds of pounds.
In out team meeting I told everyone what had happened and how she had saved us so much money (I gave the exact amount) with her diligent actions. And that anyone could make an honest mistake; the key was spotting it quickly.