Resist finding a scapegoat!
The body’s largest organ is the skin. Before modern medicine, one of the worst imaginable skin diseases was syphilis, which would start as itchy boils and then eat its way into the bones until it exposed the skeleton. The microbe that caused this disgusting sight and unbearable pain had different names in different places. In Russia it was called the Polish disease. In Poland it was the German disease; in Germany, the French disease; and in France, the Italian disease. The Italians blamed back, calling it the French disease.
The instinct to find a scapegoat is so core to human nature that it’s hard to imagine the Swedish people calling the open sores the Swedish disease, or the Russians calling it the Russian disease. That’s not how people work. We need someone to blame. No further investigation needed.
Who Should You Blame? It’s not the boss or the board or the shareholders who are to blame for a unpleasant result or a situation at your work environment that makes you or group of people displeased. What do we gain from pointing our fingers at them?
In fact, resist blaming any one individual or group of individuals for anything. Because the problem is that when we identify the bad guy, we are done thinking. And it’s almost always more complicated than that. It’s almost always about multiple interacting causes—a system. If you really want to change any situation, you have to understand how it actually works and forget about punching anyone in the face.
To control the blame instinct, resist finding a scapegoat.
? Look for causes, not villains. When something goes wrong don’t look for an individual or a group to blame. Accept that bad things can happen without anyone intending them to. Instead spend your energy on understanding the multiple interacting causes, or system, that created the situation.
? Look for systems, not heroes. When someone claims to have caused something good, ask whether the outcome might have happened anyway, even if that individual had done nothing. Give the system some credit.
In my personal experience, usually the systems/SOP's/structures needs surgical interventions.
Thanks for reading.
Hamidreza
Science Officer at Future Earth, working on the 10 New Insights in Climate Science series, and the Earth Commission | Global Commons Alliance
3 年?? This text is directly taken from Hans Rosling's book Factfulness. At the very least you should cite it... Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling & Anna Rosling R?nnlund (2018) Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think. New York: Flatiron Books. 342 pp. Parts of it are also used in their website www.gapminder.org:
Project Lead at Nestle Niddle East
5 年It's nice thought.
Operational Excellence | Factory Management | Total Productive Management (TPM) | Business Process Management | People Development
5 年Nice article. I like it Hamidreza. It's all about right & practical system.
Creative Strategist | Digital Marketing Strategist | Senior Marketing Expert | Data-Driven Creativity & Multi-Channel Content Strategy | B2B & B2C Growth | Shortlisted – New York Festivals Advertising Awards
5 年"Look for systems, not heroes." I believe this phrase is one of the most crucial points, even when someone is looking to join a new company. However, our market and industry is a hero based environment. The personal names are more important than the brands and the company's titles. Our environment unfortunately cherishes and empowers heroism, which came from deep down of our culture. In many cases, If you extract those individuals, the system will collapse into itself. Of course, I'm talking about the main individuals on tops. However, if the top level of our industry is like this, what can we expect from the mid-level followers and wannabes. In the end, I believe we can create a near-perfect and isolated system in this chaos; we just have to focus on our goals and objectives. Thanks for the article and sharing your thoughts????