Blaming others is contagious and it impacts the performance of the organization, curtails creativity. Blaming starts with people becoming defensive to protect their ego and not taking accountability for their mistakes. Leaders may need to lead by example, create a culture of safety and also start celebrating failures to promote learning.
I have often sat in management review meetings where I have witnessed heated arguments between various functions on why something went wrong. The exercise is to identify the “culprit” who “dropped the ball” instead of understanding what went wrong. When sales dipped, technical service team was blamed. When material did not reach customer on time, supply chain was blamed. When material was not shipped on time, Quality assurance function was blamed and when production did not happen as per schedule, HR function was blamed for not providing manpower resources. Unfortunately this blame game continues and extends beyond the meeting room.
There have been instances where blame game happens in front of customers which results in loss of confidence. If I had sounded very pessimistic, please do not worry as it is not just happening in our industry. It is prevalent abundantly. When there was a large oil spill, the investigations opened a can of worms as the top level executives of various institutions blamed each other.
What makes blaming dangerous is that it is contagious. One instance of blaming is enough for others to start and it spreads fast. It is a chain reaction that just needs one trigger and soon goes out of control. Employees often expect others to first stop blaming without realizing that they could do first and then expect others to stop.
What is the reason for employees to indulge in blame game?
Nathaniel Fast, in his study observed “The ‘germ’ that spreads is the goal of protecting one’s self-image. When people observe others protecting their egos, it spreads.” Ego, perception that their power/position/authority is threatened results in leaders behaving defensively instead of accepting the responsibility to fix the issue. This is when they start pointing fingers and the war begins
What does this blame game do an organization?
Studies suggest that leaders who blame others for mistakes learn less and perform worse compared to leaders who own their mistakes. Given below are some of the effects of blame culture according to Oxford review;
- Higher employee turnover
- Reduced job satisfaction resulting in lower employee engagement. This means, those who do not choose to leave, do not perform and bring down the organizational performance
- Not willing to take any decision and just wait for instructions. They play it safe
- Lack of innovation in processes and products as no one wants to try anything new
Often I have witnessed that this blame game causes lot of hurt, anger, sometimes rancour and contempt. In some cases leaders do not see eye to eye and then it flows to their team as well. If this blame game continues, we will witness formation of sub groups (cliques) within the organization resulting in cold war. Decision making is affected as the focus moves from solving the problem to balancing the rival factions. Groups are busy settling their scores without realizing that the organization suffers.
What can leaders do to save their organization from the blame game?
- Set an example – Employees learn from their leaders and pick up the cues. Hence leaders have to lead by example. They should always focus on what went wrong and what can be done to fix that. Start asking employees “what happened, what do you think we could do to solve” instead of “who did it”
- Create a psychological safety – Several times mistakes provide huge opportunity to learn and make improvements. The Founder of Honda, Soichiro Honda said “My biggest thrill is when I plan something and it fails. My mind is then filled with ideas on how I can improve it.” No wonder the organization that he built has seen such a success despite facing several setbacks. Create an environment where employees admit they made a mistake and focus on what is the learning from that mistake.
- Promote accountability – Each employee is accountable for certain results and others depend on this. When employees hold themselves accountable for results, there is no room for blaming. This will also promote a culture of others helping someone who is facing adversity.
- Celebrate failures – Promote a culture where failures are shared with a focus on what they have learnt from that event and what others could learn as well so that the organization avoids such a situation in future. There is no need for others to reinvent the wheel. Look for corrective and preventive actions and take up horizontal deployment.
I am reminded of a quote from Joseph Campbell which goes like this “Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself”. I can’t agree more.
About the author:
Mr. Pattabiraman Nagarajan is a HR professional, Consultant, trainer and an ICF certified coach. Has managed organization change and aligned HR practices to ensure business growth. He holds master degree in Social work and a PG diploma in Business management from IIM Trichy. He could be reached at npattabiraman@relyonus.in. Website: https://relyonus.in
