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ENDING THE BLAME CULTURE
ENDING THE
BLAME CULTURE
Michael Pearn, Chris Mulrooney
and Tim Payne
Routledge
Taylor & Francis
LOf',JLJON AND NEW
First published 1998 by Gower Publishing
Published 2017 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint oft he Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright© Michael Peam, Chris Mulrooney and Tim Payne 1998
Michael Peam, Chris Mulrooney and Tim Payne have asserted their rights under
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of this
work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used
only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Peam, Michael
Ending the blame culture
1. Blame 2. Errors 3. Fallibility 4. Victims - Psychology
5. Scapegoat - Psychological aspects
I. Title II. Mulrooney, Chris III. Payne, Tim
302.1'2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peam, Michael
Ending the blame culture I Michael Peam, Chris Mulrooney, and Tim
Payne.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-566--07996-8 (hardcover)
1. Psychology, Industrial. 2. Errors. 3. Organizational
behavior. I. Mulrooney, Chris. II. Payne, Tim. III. Title.
HF5548.8.P37 1998
97-45184
158.7-DC21
CIP
Typeset in Great Britain by Wearset, Boldon, Tyne and Wear.
ISBN 13: 978-0-566-07996-2 (hbk)
CONTENTS
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
Preface xi
Chris Swinson's Biggest Mistake xvii
PART ONE COMING TO TERMS WITH MISTAKES 1
1 The importance of learning from mistakes 3
Tony Fraher's Biggest Mistake 18
2 Facing up to mistakes 21
Edward Simons's Biggest Mistake 44
3 Mistakes people make-a study 47
Carl Snitcher's Biggest Mistake 78
4 Lessons learned from mistakes 81
David Arnold's Biggest Mistake 94
PART 1WO HARNESSING TilE POSD1VE POWER OF
MISTAKES 97
S Learning from mistakes made by organizations 99
David Bruce's Biggest Mistake 112
6 Cultivating intelligent mistakes in a gain culture 115
Geoff Morrow's Biggest Mistake 131
7 How we can learn from our mistakes 133
Gerry Cottle's Biggest Mistake 169
v
Vi ENDING THE BLAME CULTURE
8 Freedom to make mistakes: some examples of breaking
with convention 171
Michael Day's Biggest Mistake 187
9 Managing the positive power of mistakes 189
Norman Adsetts' Biggest Mistake 202
The authors' mistakes 204
What have you learned from this book? Personal reflection
and feedback form 207
Further reading 209
Index 213
FIGURES
1.1 The downward spiral: why we fail to learn from mistakes 7
1.2 'Above' and 'below' the line mistakes 13
2.1 How we learn 27
2.2 The relationship between mental models and mistakes 29
2.3 The vicious circle of incompetence 34
3.1 Where the mistakes were made 54
3.2 Categories of mistake 57
3.3 The action cycle 71
3.4 The mistakes cycle 71
4.1 Categories of lessons learned 84
5.1 The role of mistakes in sustaining blame cultures 107
5.2 The positive role of mistakes in gain cultures 108
6.1 Six features of a gain culture 116
6.2 The vicious circle of the twentieth century 120
6.3 The virtuous circle of the twenty-first century 121
7.1 The action cycle and ten ways of learning more from our
mistakes 134
7.2 The learning spiral as an aid to individual learning 139
7.3 Over-arching guidance to myself to improve my public
speaking 142
7.4 My second guiding principle 142
7.5 My personal model for improving my public speaking 143
7.6 How the keys to understanding questions link together 153
7.7 The experiential learning cycle 158
7.8 The team learning cycle 159
7.9 The left hand and the right hand 161
vii
TABLES
2.1 Process vs outcome mistakes 33
2.2 Six characteristics of the right kind of mistake 35
2.3 Ten underlying mistakes 37
3.1 Job titles of authors 51
3.2 Authors' area of employment 52
3.3 Where the mistakes were made 55
3.4 Full breakdown of mistakes per context 56
3.5 Kinds of mistakes made 58
3.6 Proportions of mistakes made 59
4.1 Percentage of lessons in each category 85
5.1 Blame and gain behaviours 110
6.1 Techniques to enhance learning 124
8.1 Changes in the brewery 184
ix
