Finger pointing, the blame game, excuses for unexpected or poor results…these are all too common behaviors in organizations today. Why is that?

Much of the reason is due to an organization’s intolerance for tactical failures and mistakes. If people know that regardless of intention and the soundness of strategy they will risk their reputation and maybe their job by admitting a mistake, then what behavior can you expect? Instead of sharing what is learned and creating a recovery plan, time and energy is spent on denial, cover up, and excuses.

I remember a scene from the HBO mini-series “To the Moon and Back”: While Grumman was testing the Lunar Excursion Module, its spider like landing gear frequently collapsed during simulated landings. This was a total surprise since the gear was designed with a generous safety factor. One evening while reviewing his work, the engineer responsible for determining the landing gear loads discovered that he made a simple yet large mistake in his calculations – resulting in an under-engineered landing gear design.

The next morning the engineer is in his boss’s office showing the mistake that he made. The boss then THANKED the engineer for finding his mistake quickly and bringing it to his attention. What behavior did the boss’s reaction encourage? It gave a clear message to the entire design team that he wants their energy focused on discovering problems and quickly fixing them as a team. He knew his team could not afford the time and energy needed for denial, cover up, and excuses.