<\/p>\n
I had written a piece referring to a culture of blame previously and wanted to expand a little bit more on a complimentary shift in that paradigm.<\/p>\n
Fear is an amazing motivator.\u00a0 When we think \u201cFight or Flight\u201d it may motivate you to save your own life but there\u2019s another side to that coin.\u00a0 Fear can also motivate people to stay in the same rut that they\u2019ve been in for years due to the unknown consequences of actions.\u00a0 With a \u201cFear of Blame\u201d culture it is nearly impossible to move an organization forward in any meaningful way.\u00a0 By no means do I advocate recklessness but why are we so afraid of breaking something in order to make a change?<\/p>\n
So why are people afraid?<\/p>\n
The Bus Test<\/strong><\/p>\n Are people afraid of professional repercussions for unexpected problems that occur during projects or planned tasks?\u00a0 Do they feel like they\u2019ve been thrown under the bus before?\u00a0 Do they feel like their management has their backs if something unknown pops up and a problem arises?\u00a0 Will you not touch certain systems or environments because you\u2019re afraid of who might grumble?<\/p>\n The Aftermath<\/strong><\/p>\n Are people afraid to make changes because something may go wrong and they\u2019ll be stuck cleaning it up?\u00a0 Sorry, but that\u2019s a part of life and a part of learning.\u00a0 Sometimes you have to make a mess in order to get to the root of a problem.\u00a0 Have you ever started what you believed to be a small project at home.\u00a0 Done all the inspection that you knew to do and put together a plan but then when you opened up the wall you realized that instead of a simple wall repair you have a structural problem also that you now have to deal with.<\/p>\n Dude! \u00a0Where were you?<\/strong><\/p>\n Is there appropriate personnel available to back people up when things happen?\u00a0 Do you have assistance to resolve the problems?\u00a0 We\u2019ve all worked with that person who seems to conveniently disappear when the \u201cstuff\u201d hits the fan.\u00a0 Sometimes there are folks who feel like they\u2019re out of their depth during a situation and don\u2019t feel like they can assist.\u00a0 Train your people to pitch in and get involved even if it\u2019s out of their specific area of expertise.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s good to just have someone else to bounce troubleshooting ideas off of or to validate your logic.\u00a0 Sometimes it\u2019s just good to have someone to field the phone calls and communications with management and stakeholders through the problem.\u00a0 The more involved people are in stressful situations as a team the more bonded they become, the more they learn about how to resolve the problem, how the culture adapts and addresses issues, and how to more quickly resolve issues in the future on top of typically uncovering a larger systemic issue that could help prevent future headaches.<\/p>\n Use Your Head<\/strong><\/p>\n Now, let\u2019s not be crazy here.\u00a0 Making changes to a financial system during year end would not be the brightest decision so let\u2019s take things like that off the table but doing coordinated updates or planned, informed changes is something that has to be done and sometimes things happen.\u00a0 So when something goes wrong and people band together to resolve an issue why do you blame the guy who uncovered the problem and fixed it?\u00a0 \u201cWell they should have known\u2026\u201d\u00a0 Do you know every change, tweak, or process that was implemented before you came into the organization?\u00a0 Evolution has an interesting way of covering up the bones of the past and sometimes they get uncovered in unexpected ways.\u00a0 People are incurably fallible but most are also infinitely capable of learning if given the opportunity and allowed curiosity.\u00a0 As always plan ahead, proceed with caution and turn over all of the stones you can see and that you know about.\u00a0 Create a learning culture where you know a lot about the jobs of the people next to you so you can back them up as needed and you\u2019ll find that it will also help you in your career.\u00a0 Blame should be replaced with appropriate post-mortem conversations with actionable work, guilt should only be associated with gross negligence or intent not honest mistakes by people who are intelligently approaching their work.\u00a0 Interruptions to our days are frustrating but they aren\u2019t the norm and they aren\u2019t the end of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"