February 7, 2024 | Susan Napier-Sewell

Does Blame Make Sense in Incident Investigations?

Why are companies still enabling and allowing blame to be a reasonable solution to what happened in an incident?

The answer to why blame is still a workplace answer to what happened may be one for the ages, but TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis has a much different take on how to keep blame out of your organization.

When we consider a recent accident—such as a pharmaceutical plant producing a bad batch of drugs and those drugs making their way past the QA process and, once distributed, ending up harming customers—one fact is indisputable: Human action broke down somewhere along the line. And the least productive next step is to begin a round of the blame game.

In this video, TapRooT® professionals Benna Hughes and Ken Reed highlight why blame is counterproductive—as well as an exercise in futility—in the workplace. While it may be human nature to default to finger-pointing, a blame-oriented organization can move beyond old habits. An organization that employs investigative methodology to accomplish a thorough review of the facts creates a culture where workers are not fearful to self-report missteps and mistakes. 

TapRooT® Root Cause Analysis training can transform your investigations, moving beyond blame to clearly isolate systemic problems that can be fixed, and prevent (or greatly reduce) repeat accidents.

Find out how you can use TapRooT® to help you change a blame culture into a culture of performance improvement.

TapRooT® has a team of investigators and instructors with years of extensive training ready to offer assistance worldwide. We also offer ongoing support to our clients through free newsletters and Root cause tip videoS, the root cause analysis blog, and our annual Global TapRooT® Summit.

Register for one of our courses. We offer a basic 2-Day course and an advanced 5-Day courseContact us or call 865.539.2139 about having a course at your site or for further root cause analysis opportunities. We’re here to find solutions for you.

Categories
Courses & Training, Human Performance, Investigations
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