Blame Storming

Blame Storming - sitting around figuring out who to blame for the latest stuff up.

Why do some corporates insist on this type of approach, we all know that people make mistakes and people say it so often that you almost forget that it is true. Then when people do make an error some personality types feel duty bound to punish them, effectively for being human.

Now we have a category of "mistakes" that we find unacceptable and worthy of punishment they are called crimes, the reason we punish is that we don't really think it was a true mistake. If we do think so then even within this category we make allowances. eg if you deliberately run someone over we will charge you with murder and you may spend a long time in prison, if however you have an accident and kill someone you may still be punished for essentially not being careful enough but the penalty will be nowhere near as severe.

So back to corporates and how they behave, I was speaking with someone recently who had discovered an error (not made it just discovered it) and was concerned about bringing it to the attention of thier boss because it would spark a round of recriminations and Blame Storming. I have to wonder how this organisation feels this is useful. It is clearly incentivising employees to stay quiet even if they are aware of issues, it will probably limit any willingness to take risks and therefore inovation (always a risk) will be stiffled, it will likely lower productivity as it may not be a happy place to work etc I can't really think of any positive reason to behave this way other than... it makes the boss feel superior (potentially) or some other ego boost for the people pointing the fingers.

OK so I can understand the frustration with the "non learning" employee who continues to make the same mistake over and over, however blame is still not very useful outplacement councilling is probably best.