Blame feels satisfying. Learning actually fixes things.

If I had a fiver for every angry, knee-jerk reaction I’ve seen from a manager or business owner, I wouldn’t be in this game anymore.

I get it.

It’s frustrating when people get things wrong.
It’s upsetting when a client complains.
It’s uncomfortable when something lands at your feet that shouldn’t have gone wrong.

And in that moment, it’s REALLY tempting to spin round and point the finger at the person who’s “failed to do their job properly”.

And yes - blame can feel good. Briefly.

Ahhhhh…. But it doesn’t actually fix anything.

Because while blaming someone might release a bit of steam, it doesn’t address why the situation happened in the first place. And if you don’t fix that, the same thing will happen again. Maybe next month. Maybe next year. But it will happen.

What often happens instead is this:

• Someone gets told off or slapped with a warning

• They leave feeling embarrassed, annoyed, upset or defensive

• Their confidence takes a knock

• They disengage a little

• Or they become overly cautious and second-guess themselves and then become really annoying and start asking you loads of questions about every single thing they’re doing….

What you’re left with is a swirl of negative emotion while the original problem is still quietly sitting there, untouched.

That’s why I’m a big fan of what I call a post-mortem.

It sounds dark. If you can think of a better name for it, let me know!

It’s actually one of the most constructive things you can do.

Here’s how it works.

Take a step back. Get a big piece of paper. Draw a timeline.
Then map out the sequence of events that led you here.

• What happened first?

• Where were the touchpoints?

• Who was involved, and when?

• What decisions were made or not made?

As you do this, patterns start to appear.

• You’ll spot gaps.

• You’ll notice misunderstandings.

• You’ll see where expectations weren’t clear or where assumptions were made.

  More often than not, it comes back to communication.

  Sometimes training.

  Sometimes support.

  Sometimes systems that made it easy for things to go wrong.

What you usually don’t find is one single person being the sole cause.

Things rarely go wrong in isolation. And they’re very rarely down to one individual alone.

Blaming one person and telling them not to do it again doesn’t make your business more robust.

Understanding what actually happened does.

Blame might feel satisfying in the moment.

Learning is what stops you having to deal with the same mess again.