How Eliminating Blame Makes Us Smarter
Have you ever played the blame game? You know how it works . . . when something goes wrong, we all begin ducking for cover and point the finger at someone else. Why does this happen? For many people, responsibility and blame go together. The joke is that we’re happy to accept responsibility when things go well, but we’ll refuse to accept blame when they go wrong. But what if the two don’t actually go together at all? In fact, what if accepting 100% responsibility eliminates b
How Being Consistent Can Lead Us Astray
“Are you suggesting the consistency and standardization that have made us who we are, is creating problems?” The expression on the Quality Control Manager’s face communicated the depth of their frustration. They had spent weeks artfully articulating throughout the organization the importance of following the Standard Operating Procedures that had dramatically improved the company’s previous error ratio. Now someone was suggesting that the system was "overly standardized." “Th
How to Drain Your Own Swamp
Have you ever found yourself stuck . . . as if your inspiration simply slipped away? You had a vision or a plan and suddenly the clarity was replaced with a murky fog. With all of the myriad distractions and challenges we can be faced with in life, it’s easy for this to happen. We’ve likely all heard or seen a phrase that describes this phenomenon perfectly. Maybe it was spoken like a proverb in a meeting or perhaps scrawled on a bathroom wall somewhere. “When you’re up to yo
