The Blame Game
In our culture, we’re really good at assigning blame. If someone gets injured, we look for someone we can sue. If the economy takes a downturn, we throw some politicians out of office. If our favorite team has a lousy season, we want the coach’s head on a platter. We hope that, by assigning blame to someone, we’ll achieve justice and accountability . . . or do we? Maybe we just want the illusion of accountability, so we don’t have to acknowledge the randomness of our lives. Or maybe, just maybe, we’re trying to cover our own asses.
Brené Brown, who studies vulnerability and shame, defines blame as “the discharging of discomfort and pain.” In other words, we feel bad, so we dump on someone else. Physician leaders are particularly good at this, because the entire medical education system is built around dumping on whoever is below you on the ladder. And in the moment, it might feel like you’re holding them accountable to a higher standard of care, but the research tells us otherwise. People are most effective when they feel psychologically safe, and least effective when they feel shame. Blaming is the exact opposite of leading, but we do it anyway.
Although certain behavior issues are often caused by individuals, most performance problems are caused by systems. Almost no one wants to perform badly. People do the best they can with what they’ve got--and the system is what they have to work with. The writer James Clear put it more eloquently:
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
When we see performance issues, the first thing we should do is interrogate the system. This makes us nervous, because as leaders, we are more responsible for that system than the people we lead. The performance problems of our teams often reflect on us rather than them.
But that’s not a reason to be hard on yourself. Be hard on the system, not on the people. When you feel that pain or discomfort, don’t discharge it--use it. It’s a cry for help from a system that isn’t working the way it’s supposed to. You can fix that.
