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.
USATODAY.com – Error in Comair crash fairly common As a frequent flyer, this almost makes me physically sick to think about the systemic problems, the combinations of errors, and the multiple human errors that led to this horrible tragedy. Calling…
I knew it when I first wrote about the latest “runway incursion” (near miss) at O’Hare. It seems too easy to pin the blame on one individual, as the FAA and the media did, blaming an Air Traffic Controller. It’s…
Jetliner taking off at O’Hare barely clears 747 on runway | Chicago Tribune As a frequent flyer (I landed at O’Hare on Monday), and an aspiring “lean thinker,” I pay close attention to this sort of thing. Look at the…