How do we move from a blame culture to a learning culture?

As humans, our knee-jerk reaction when something goes wrong is to look around for who to blame. The blame game does significant harm to an organisation by creating mistrust and eroding psychological safety - it leads people to hide their mistakes rather than learn from them and improve.

One of the most effective strategies to move from a "blame culture" to a "learning culture" is to practice after-action reviews (AARs), also known as post-mortems or retrospectives. AARs are structured debrief sessions are not just meetings; they guide participants through a process for identifying what could be improved in a project, once that project has completed. They originated in the United States military, where they were developed as a way to systematically analyse and learn from the outcomes of combat and training exercises. An AAR is a tool that encourages open dialogue, where team members are invited to share their perspectives on what went well, what didn't, and most importantly, how to improve in the future.

Daniel Coyle in the book Culture Code suggests AARs typically include 5 questions:

- What were our intended results

- What were our actual results

- What caused our results

- What will we do the same next time

- What will we do differently

To run an AAR once a project has completed, gather all stakeholders, and ask them to review the questions above, or at a minimum, the last two questions; what should we do more of next time and what should we do differently. Ask participants to write down their answers, and then openly share the findings. Finally, discuss what the team has collectively learned, and decide on what are you going to focus on doing differently next time. Don’t forget to celebrate the small wins, too, they are an important part in fostering recognition and psychological safety.

The beauty of after-action reviews lies in their simplicity and power to transform mistakes into valuable learning moments. This process demystifies failure, making it a stepping stone rather than a stumbling block. To instil a learning culture as a leader within your organisation, emphasize that the goal is learning, not finger-pointing. Make AARs a habit as part of every project that completes. Highlight and celebrate the small wins explicitly - it’s as important as learning from what went wrong. This balanced approach cultivates a positive, growth-oriented mindset among team members.

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