Driving onto the A1 from what feels like the world’s smallest slip road and avoiding oncoming lorries, I managed to manoeuvre my car onto the dual carriageway. I started to think about the people I had just been with. They were former colleagues who were at a conference centre for their training and development day.

In 2024 I retired from being a Managing Director for Dosh Ltd www.dosh.org where I had the honour of being their Managing Director for 15 years.  Dosh supports people with a learning disability to have better control over their money. They believe that everyone should have an equal opportunity to make important decisions that affect their life. As a parent/carer for an adult with a learning disability I continue to be a dedicated supporter of their work.

This was the first time since my retirement that I had met up with them. Just being in their presence again I could see the same motived, empowered, and accountable team.

As I was driving home, I thought about what essential ingredient encourages ‘empowerment’ and ‘accountability’ within an organisation, a company, and a team?

This comes from ensuring there is a ‘No Blame’ culture, which is inherent within a team’s culture (‘the way you do thinks around here’).

There are numerous academic articles online about no-blame cultures, so for this article I wanted to come from a different angle! My experience(s) of working within a no blame culture, how it worked for my colleagues and me.

Related:  https://leadershipintheraw.org/2016/03/01/the-culture-within-you/

What ‘No Blame Culture’ means

A no blame culture is an organisational approach that emphasises learning from mistakes rather than assigning blame. The goal is to create a workplace where continuous improvement is prioritised over fault-finding, helping to drive innovation and team collaboration. Where everyone shares accountability and no one individual is singled out to blame.

Why ‘No Blame’ mattered to our organisation:

  • In the company I worked for, errors had the potential to be catastrophic for the people we supported, especially when it involves social care and peoples’ finances.   It can be dangerous to operate in an environment where colleagues do not feel able to report errors that have been made. These organisations and companies are known as High Reliability Organisations (HROs) and include workplaces such as hospitals, airlines, and submarines.
  • We believed mistakes are seen as part of human nature and where people are encouraged to aim high without fear of falling.
  • If you are a company that wants to: innovate, achieve growth, retain your best staff, recruit, surround yourself with talent.

Related:  Related:  https://leadershipintheraw.org/2022/04/14/the-3rd-leadership-lesson-i-learned-surround-yourself-with-talent/

  • Provide an environment that is a safe place to work for your colleagues.
  • We wanted an organisation where people felt valued and supported.

How it works – what do you need to do to make a no blame culture work

  • It must start from the ‘top’ of an organisation. The CEO, MD, and Senior Management must lead from the front by communicating your (no blame) culture and how it works around here. And then practicing it so it is not just words on a paper until something goes wrong.
  • Your starting point is a shared recognition that people do not come into work to do a bad job – everyone is doing their best.
  • Recognising that your colleagues may come from different employment backgrounds where blame has been part of their everyday work and people have been scapegoated. One of the most rewarding anecdotes I heard was when a new team member who had made a mistake, had been told by a long term (and much experienced) colleague not to be afraid, be open and report it. He said we are a team, and it is the team which takes responsibility.
  • A recognition that mistakes often are usually the result of a systemic failure rather than one individual solely responsible for the mistake, accident, or incident.
  • A company and/or organisation has a hierarchy loose enough that they empower and enable those who are highly skilled in a specific area/subject to lead on operational issues where appropriated by the negative consequences of experimentation (such as failure).
  • A no blame culture does not mean that you do not acknowledge mistakes especially to external stakeholders. The difference is rather than scapegoating an individual, the team, company and or organisation takes collective responsibility.

Related:  https://leadershipintheraw.org/19/07/16/the-dosh-leadership-code/

  • A no blame culture must show up in the daily language and practices for all employees. To become a culture, the no blame approach must be introduced, continually, reflected upon, and improved.

Close with solid fillA no blame culture does not apply if an employee shows intent to sabotage and disrupt your company’s operations.

I found the benefits of a no blame culture to be:

  • Mistakes are not hidden, and reporting errors can be rectified swiftly,
  • Reduces workplace stress.
  • A learning culture develops. Employees are more likely to speak up about issues or suggest improvements when they are confident their input will be met constructively.
  • No blame cultures value and incentivise honesty. Colleagues are open and honest with each other.
  • Accountability eliminates the time we spend on unproductive behaviour, increases the value we place on our workload and encourages ownership of the things we can influence. All these things are, of course, critical to personal and organisational success. accountability and responsibility are maintained.
  • Progress, and growth takes a leap forward. Colleagues are not personally affected in no blame cultures,
  • Unlocking innovation by encouraging experimentation.
  • If things go wrong, everyone is more likely to understand why it went wrong.

Prepare to be tested on the way you do things. During my journey home, I recalled an occasion when our culture was challenged.  It involved a colleague inputting an invoice number instead of a value into our internet banking (it was more serious than it sounds, believe me.) I was informed, we recovered, I apologised, nobody was scapegoated, we put new audit systems in place, and we moved on. Your no blame culture will be compromised if the first time something goes wrong you seek to blame someone.

Steve Raw www.leadershipintheraw.org