When things go wrong: Some themes of a no-blame culture

Some themes of a no-blame culture include:

• discussion of risk (and responsibilities for them) before problems arise, rather than afterwards
• emphasising collective responsibility and shared business goals
• aiming for insights and understanding about decisions, arrived at through a process of co-operation and collaboration
• acceptance of a joint commitment for taking specific actions, with no-one putting their 'head on the block' (regardless of any individual responsibilities that are assigned)
• using tools (such as the decision tree) to generate and confirm a joint commitment to decisions
• taking risks in an informed way, with full knowledge of the potential consequences
• when problems arise from particualr decisions, remembering and re-stating the reasoning that went into those decisions
• aiming to draw collective learning rather than individual advantage from mistakes, problems and negative situations
• using passive language to defuse tensions and sidestep the assignation of blame (e.g. 'there is a problem' rather than 'so-and-so has made a mistake')
• understanding that creativity, innovation and new directions imply some freedom to make mistakes
• thinking of ways to reward people on the basis of how well they take decisions, not the results of those decisions.