Published Work

Avoid Playing the Business Blame Game

It has been almost a week. As a Chicago Cubs fan, I still want so badly to blame something else for their loss.

It has to be Steve "Foul Ball" Bartman who is responsible or Alex Gonzalez's fielding error. Maybe it's the Billy Goat curse or the red ivy is haunted. How do I explain it to my young sons? It couldn't possibly be that for those seven games the Marlins were a better baseball team.

Similarly, when things go bad in business, we want to blame someone else. We reason to ourselves that it has to be someone else's fault besides our own. We say to ourselves: "If not for this thing or that thing, it would not have happened. We shouldn't be here except for this one small thing."

Not true. Unfortunately, we have all from time to time pulled ourselves up from despair by pushing the blame on someone else. Simply put, this is bad for your business. Looking to place blame on others doesn't accomplish anything or move your business forward one bit.

You are at a particular point in your business because you just are. For better or worse, you can't be any place else.

The key to getting past difficult business situations is not to go on a witch hunt and find someone to "tar and feather" (although I would like to have seen a few Marlins like this). As a Chicagoan and a 22-year Cubs fan, I'm ashamed how people placed blame on Bartman for the team's loss. This may make you immediately feel better, but soon after, you realize you have accomplished nothing.

After two failed partnerships, I finally learned this lesson. My partner and I never played the blame game in my last business. We would never be mad at each other for more than 24 hours. We would figure out what went wrong and try to learn from it if we could.

Bad things don't always happen to teach us something. Sometimes, they just happen and it stinks. We never pointed fingers at each other or other people in the company. That is a waste of time and energy. If you find yourself in this situation, find out what went wrong and fix the problem. If you can't, feel sorry for a week, wallow well in it and move on.

In the end, it may be about taking personal responsibility. Steve Miller of Origin Ventures says "people need to take responsibility for their own actions. Not enough people do that in our society."

In small business, the buck stops with you and that's OK. It's important to remember and retain this especially if you have other people working for you. Don't shift blame. Ultimately, it's about you. Accept it.

Brian Gallagher at Preon Power takes it one step further. He says people need to proactively accept responsibility if they did something wrong. One of his employees told him that the "lesson isn't over until it is learned." He believes that the quicker someone accepts their part, the faster they can move on.

Still, Gallagher doesn't like to focus on blame. He would rather look at what his company could do differently and the lessons learned.

Eric Rodriguez of Ribstone Systems believes that blame is useless for another reason. He said: "There is never one turning moment that dictates the future that changes everything. Though there could be a setback, you can always recover. If it is a lost customer, let's move on and find another one."

Playing the blame game is also a good way to test your company. Poor team dynamics aren't always easy to spot (especially in a start-up or small company where there's already a lot of chaos). Screaming and yelling aren't always telltale signs.

It can be difficult to tell the helpful players from the bad ones. Look at how people get along. Do they try to fill in and compensate for each other or do they look to place blame instead of accepting failure and looking for solutions? Who is willing to be flexible in their role in the company and do whatever must be done to get the job done?

If you find team members or relationships that don't work, don't hesitate to immediately change out the people or their roles. People don't typically change much. I always regretted not making changes sooner rather than waiting. You will, too.

If you aren't able to recover from a business loss this year, we can always wait for next year!