Don't Play the Blame Game - 3 Reasons to Move On

When there is a mess on the floor, it may feel really good to play "Who's to blame?!".

Do we do it out of some belief in the importance of accountability? Do we think pinning the blame will improve the behavior of the guilty? Do we think as a manager that we are somehow resolved of the responsibility of our team's performance? Did we get yelled at as children and this is our way of paying it back?

There are 3 main reasons why you should move past blame and into effective action.

1.It is far more productive to focus on corrective action and learning the lessons the situation offers.

2. It's less expensive to get on to the solution instead of investing good money after bad simply to point the finger of blame. Blaming wont put any money in your pocket and you will ruin whatever morale is left in the team.

3. Even if you can perfectly determine who was to blame (if anyone!) you still have the more important problem to solve and that is how can we move on, get better, learn from this, and make sure it doesn't happen again. You simply can't afford to lose the time in pointless inquiry; it's the one resource you can't replace, so make sure those precious moments are used for the good of the team long term.

Remember, your team, family, your peers and your friends need your leadership in times of crisis like this, and we have to be able to get past simple blame games and demonstrate positive leadership if we want to move forward.