Innovation or decay?

Undocumented but practised processes of project management: Blame Management

Many, perhaps even countless approaches and best practices can be found for projects and for dealing with projects. Often they differ only insignificantly, which stems from the nature of things, or better said, from the nature of project management. After all, there is a certain consensus about the most important aspects and topics in this environment. Only in the weighting of the topics and then possibly in the details do the different approaches differ. However, one thing strikes you: not all the important procedures commonly used in practice are included in these descriptions. And these tried and tested approaches often make the difference between personal success and personal failure. We need to bridge this gap.

The following is a detailed and process-oriented description of one of the most important aspects of successful project work: the process of blame assignment and administration (blame management).

Blame management in the context of society

Dozens of articles, books, seminars etc. denounce the search for culprits, call for a “different error culture”, brand companies as “backward” and propagate the search for consensus instead.

This is hypocritical in my opinion, because guilt and its attribution plays a central role in all areas of our lives. Our entire legal system is based on the question of guilt and criminal liability. The media call for clarification of the guilt issue in the diesel scandal. What did Winterkorn know when? High school graduates are tormented in examinations with the question of guilt (Gretchen and Faust, guilt and atonement), philosophy pleads for the attribution of responsibility and guilt (compatibilists, guilt as a moral duty) and in this context one really does not have to waste too many words on religion (purgatory, indulgence, reincarnation, trolls, elves and so on).

Everywhere, but not in companies? Absurd.

The importance of Blame Management for a company and its projects

I’m not saying that all consensus-oriented approaches are nonsense. But: the search for culprits is made taboo, their advocates are despised and pilloried. And all this only because much was simply not thought through.

Only very few have ever taken the trouble to question these generalising and tendentious treatises. We agreed too quickly (yes, me too) not to be stigmatized as backward and dehumanised.

But if you overcome this hurdle and deal more openly with this conundrum, you cannot help but notice that critics are only concerned with the unprofessional, even rather accidental, unplanned form of blaming born out of the situation and do not recognize the professionalised, well thought-out form integrated into the organization through their Walldorf-clouded glasses.

Give me the chance to show you the creative power that lies in the consistent, process-oriented and integrated allocation of blame, and how your projects can be made more efficient through constant application, thus saving you money. Now my critics may call me a misanthrop who only cares about profit maximization. But this is only because they have not yet finished reading and ignore or do not want to admit the extremely positive effects on cooperation in the organization.

In the following articles I will show all necessary process steps, input and output values as well as tools and techniques of Blame Management. However, successful application also requires integration into the company. Only the interlocking with the surrounding business processes (e.g. learning organization, HR etc.) secures the efficient and effective use beyond the mainstream shaped by management consultants.

Become trendsetters and early adopters YOURSELVES. Secure your lead over your competitors and become a sought-after keynote speaker.

Text: RGE
English translation: BCO