Blame: The first reaction?

Something bad happens.... say, to a project that you're working on.... or that causes you to a lose a sale.... or that causes you to somehow look bad. What's your first reaction? Too many times, I've seen myself and those around me turn to one of the longest running games in town: The Blame Game!

Last week's power outages on the East Coast and in Canada provided a perfect snapshot of the Blame Game in action. Rather than focus attention on root causes, most of the buzz was poured into who to blame. A lightning strike in on the U.S. side of Niagra Falls! Yeah, that's it! Oops! No lightning going on that day according to the National Weather Service. Hmm... Well, it must be a lightning problem in Canada then, at least according to New York City Mayor Bloomberg (obviously a part-time meteorologist!) It didn't take long for Hillary Clinton to--here's a surprise--blame it on President Bush. She'll have to ignore Bill Richardson's comments that her husband's administration "yawned about this".

Clearly, the Blame Game is not simply for countries and politicians. We see it regularly when there somehow has to be someone to blame when something goes wrong.

In my workshops and keynotes I occasionally refer to a quote from Jerry Weinberg: "It may look like a crisis but it's only the end of an illusion." What illusions led up to this crisis? How about that not holding utilities accountable for their emergency plans wouldn't come back to bite us? Or that utilities will somehow invest in replacing infrastructure when there are absolutely no financial incentives to do so. Or that our current electrical distribution system can keep up with increasing demands indefinitely without having to put more lines through someone's backyard.

Stack enough illusions up and it's only a matter of time before the lights go out, so to speak. It's not a matter of "if" a crisis will hit... it's only a matter of when.

When (not if) bad things happen, let's work at being the ones who are seeking out and squashing the illusions. The Blame Game might feel good for a couple days, but reality always bats last. If we don't deal with the illusions, they'll simply come back and burn us again. Let's be leaders whose first reactions keep us out of the Blame Game. Let's be illusion busters. Let's make sure the people who report to us do the same, remembering they learn best when they see us model it.

John G. Miller is a best-selling author on the topic of accountability, and has a great formula to fight against the blame game. Instead of asking questions that start with "Who", "Why", and "When", how about asking some "What" questions, with an "I" or "we" close afterwards! "What can I do to make sure this doesn't happen again?" "What can we learn from this?" Learn more about John and his book "QBQ!" at the QBQ! web site.

posted by Andy at 12:04 PM