Leadership isn’t about avoiding mistakes–it’s about responding to them with honesty and humility. This week, Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn offered a clear example. After quarterback Jayden Daniels suffered a dislocated elbow late in a blowout loss (read more),…
tl;dr: Blame-based leadership creates fear, silences learning, and erodes trust. Great leaders replace blame with shared accountability, psychological safety, and system-focused improvement. I recently witnessed a leadership moment that stopped me in my tracks. A CEO, standing on a stage…
TL;DR: Blame shuts down learning and drives mistakes underground. High-performing organizations move beyond “who’s at fault” and focus on understanding systems, building psychological safety, and learning from failure–turning mistakes into fuel for continuous improvement. Mistakes happen everywhere–on factory floors, in…
Blame-based cultures kill improvement. Leaders must resolve to build trust and safety if they want innovation and engagement. During Katie Anderson‘s Japan Study Trip this past November, a participant shared an observation with me that resonated deeply: “The biggest challenge…
Over the years, I’ve seen how often organizations respond to mistakes with blame, punishment, or superficial fixes–rather than learning and prevention. That’s why I collaborated with Karen Martin and TKMG Academy to create a mistake-proofing course focused not just on…
How often do you hear executives blaming employees, including frontline workers, for different problems or poor performance? I don’t think that’s a good look when leaders do that. Leaders are responsible for the system, especially senior leaders. Even though they…
Earlier today, during the Atlantic 10 Conference men’s basketball championship game between Duquesne and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), celebratory confetti briefly fell with 17:54 left in the second half. CBS play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan said, “Oh my gosh, they’ve got…
Jeff Liker explains how Toyota leaders at every level are expected to respond when something goes wrong — and why most other companies default to blame instead. We also dig into the real story behind Ford’s failed andon cord rollout…
A nurse makes a medication error. A patient is harmed. The nurse already feels terrible — they went into healthcare to help people, and now the worst has happened. Then comes the organizational response. The investigation. The suspension. Maybe termination.…
One sign that medical mistakes are a systemic problem is when you see headlines like this around the world, this time in New Zealand: Elderly patient overdosed by hospital nurses on incorrect medication, died days later As I wrote on…
TL;DR: A GM flashback shows how blame-based, command-and-control leadership destroys accountability instead of creating it. Real accountability starts at the top–when leaders model learning, responsibility, and psychological safety rather than fear and punishment. I’ve written before about Bob. He was…
TL;DR: Punishing people for mistakes does not reduce mistakes — it suppresses reporting, drives fear, and blocks learning. Evidence from healthcare, safety science, and organizations like Alcoa shows that improvement comes from systems thinking, transparency, and psychological safety, not blame.…
