Tag: Blame

Blame, Accountability, and Leadership in Lean

Blame is often mistaken for accountability—but in practice, it creates fear, silence, and surface-level compliance. These posts examine blame through a Lean and systems-thinking lens, showing how punishment-based responses undermine learning, psychological safety, and continuous improvement.

Across healthcare, manufacturing, aviation, and leadership culture, this archive focuses less on who to fault—and more on how leaders design systems that either encourage learning or drive mistakes underground.

What “Grey’s Anatomy” Got Right About Blame, Systems, and Medical Errors

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TL;DR: A Grey's Anatomy episode offers a sharp lesson in patient safety: when leaders focus on who to blame instead of what broke in...

“No Blame” Doesn’t Mean “No Accountability”

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Wachter's World : Physician Accountability for Violation of Safety Rules: The Time For Excuses Has Passed I think Bob Wachter has it completely right in...

Silver Bullets and Easy Answers — Always Appealing

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While in Boston, I'm getting the chance to sit in on some sessions of an MIT Seminar in Healthcare Systems Innovation. Today, the session that...

Former Lehman CEO Blames His Former Employees, but so do Some...

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From Lehman's Wreckage, New Lives - WSJ.com:Disgraced Lehman CEO Dick Fuld says in this WSJ piece:"'I spent too much time out of the office...

Jerry Jones is NOT a Lean Thinker, Apparently?

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Giant video board in new Cowboys stadium causes problems for Titans punter - The Huddle - USATODAY.com Are you ready for some football???? OK, so nobody...

Cleaning Out the Lean Blog Backlog, Redux

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It's a not-so-regular feature, but it's time to clean up the Lean Blog Backlog (say that 10 times fast), the stories that I've tucked...

It Might Be Bad Design If Instructions Are Required…

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... or if it's too easy to make mistakes. One of my favorite books of all time is Donald Norman's The Design of Everyday Things....

Medical Mistake in In-Vitro Fertilization: What’s More Effective, Blaming Process or...

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IVF baby given to wrong woman - as couple's last embryo was aborted | Mail Online This was front-page news in one of the UK...

Bad Times? Don’t Blame!

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Management Tip of the Day :: April 15, 2009 :: HarvardBusiness.orgIt's nice to see HBR, for once, spreading the message of Dr. Deming. If...

Washington "Natinals" Error

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D.C. Sports Bog - Nationals Uniform FailOK, Monday = sports day on the Lean Blog, apparently. I'll get it out of my system today...

This Pilot Didn’t Follow Standardized Work?

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Plane that crashed near Buffalo was on autopilot After "Sully" and his crew were lauded as heroes for following checklists, keeping calm, and landing...

A Closer Look at GM/UAW Hourly Wages

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As GM and Chrysler were going back before Congress today, they have been back in the news again lately. I have gotten tired of...
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