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.
Plane that crashed near Buffalo was on autopilot After “Sully” and his crew were lauded as heroes for following checklists, keeping calm, and landing that plane in the Hudson River, it’s sad and interesting that the pilot of the commuter…
As GM and Chrysler were going back before Congress today, they have been back in the news again lately. I have gotten tired of hearing blowhard analysis on the news channels that “the problem is the UAW.” I can’t count…
Three airlines drop self-reporting safety program – USATODAY.com Dropping this program has got to be one of those “process indicators” of airline safety. I can’t believe that flying will be as safe without this program where pilots could report problems…
Credit crunch – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I hate the term “credit crunch.” It’s used in headlines as a noun, a “crunch” that’s some sort of monster that terrorizes banks and individuals. Headlines, such as: Banks count the cost of…
Express Mail: USPS Says Guaranteed Overnight Isn’t Guaranteed. What? Saw this post on The Consumerist blog about how the United States Postal Service does NOT guarantee overnight delivery of “guaranteed” overnight documents…. IF you place the package in a drop…
I’m not sure if the survey is available online, but I’m sure many of you just received the annual email survey from the Lean Enterprise Institute. Last year, we gave some constructive criticism and feedback to our friends at the…
Sometimes, I have a collection of news stories or links that I either don’t have time to blog about, assume you don’t have time to read about, or don’t really merit a full blog post. So my “WIP” of “draft”…
Dennis Quaid Recounts Twins’ Drug Ordeal, Actor Tells 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft Medical Errors Kill Thousands – CBS News Did you see the actor Dennis Quaid on 60 Minutes last week? He talked about the sad case where his twin…
strategy+business, the e-magazine from Booz, Allen & Hamilton, reports how the US Army is changing the way that it shares knowledge within such a massive organization. The new system is a powerful example of how respect for people and a…
A few short thoughts from today’s WSJ:‘Headwind’ Blows As Top Executives Navigate Trouble – WSJ.com As I was reading the first article, above, about executives blaming “headwinds” and macroeconomic problems for business woes, I thought, “Sure, there are economic problems,…
Earlier this week, I asked some questions that managers and leaders should ask, prompted by an email I received through the blog. I’ve been thinking about this and I’ve been trying to keep my “no blaming” hat on. Managers are…
‘It’s never just one thing’ that leads to serious error – Los Angeles Times This is a stunning headline, it’s pretty amazing (in a good way) to find an article that doesn’t focus on blaming individuals. “It’s never just one…