TO BRING

PROJECTS
BACK FROM
THE BRINK,
GET TEAM
MEMBERS
FOCUSED ON
FINDING
SOLUTIONS
INSTEAD OF
POINTING
FINGERS.
BLAME
THE
GAME
BY SARAH FISTER GALE
PHOTO BY RACHEL HOLLAND

54 PM NETWORK | DECEMBER 2006 | WWW.PMI.ORG
as a motivator for project success. But this Machi-
avellian approach is often counter-productive, causing
team members to waste time and money covering up
mistakes in the hopes that when they do come to light,
someone else will be blamed. In the meantime, errors
that might otherwise have been easily rectified are
allowed to fester and escalate. Some companies are
switching the focus, skipping the rounds of incrimina-
tion and zeroing in on how to fix the problem when it
first pops up.
Auto-making giant Toyota Motor Corp. has
embraced a blame-free approach to project manage-
ment for years. When projects hit speed bumps, man-
agers dont focus on who is at fault, they look at how to
get that project out of trouble, says Andrew Lund,
executive program manager at Toyota, Ann Arbor,
Mich., USA. When problems arise on projects, leaders
take a two-step approach to dealing with them, he
says. First we recover, then we reflect.
In the recovery phase, the team identifies the prob-
lem and what they need to do to get back on track
without wasting time punishing those at fault. Once the
problem is solved, theres a formal reflection process,
in which the team and its champion identify what went
wrong and how to avoid it in the future. To do both of
those things, we need honest answers from team mem-
bers, Mr. Lund says. You cant have your people
afraid to say what they know because they fear retri-
bution. So we dont do the blame game.
During the prototype phase for the Toyota Sienna
four years ago, for example, late preparation of prototype
parts prevented completion of quality-assurance steps in
the projects initial phase. Instead of trying to assign
blame, the team worked together to address the situa-
tion by adding a checkpoint to ensure the parts quality.
It added cost to the project, but we were able to con-
firm that all of the parts matched the drawings, he says.
Later, when development was complete, a formal
meeting was held with the project director to review
the reflection report. When the meeting was over, the
director told me how happy he was about the exchange
of information, Mr. Lund says. We all learned a valu-
able lesson from that project.
Taking a blame-free approach to problem-solving
lets companies benefit from mistakes. There is an old
tenet in production that one bad part is worth 10 good
parts because you can learn so much from its flaws,
he says. The same is true in project management.
This strategy only works, however, when companies
forgo scapegoating to create an environment in which
employees can own up to their mistakes and receive help
in solving them. Team associates will improve if you
give them the time and support they need, Mr. Lund
says. Patience is key to their long-term development.
Go Ahead, Make a Mistake
Making team members feel they can try things that
might not workand still have a jobis considered a
necessity at break-step productions, an innovation
consultancy and software development firm in Stirling,
Scotland. Its important that team members not fear
blame or retribution if problems arise, says Patrick
The Blame Game
MANY OLD-SCHOOL
PROJECT MANAGERS
STILL BELIEVE IN FEAR
Andrews, director of the company. They couldnt be
successful if they were afraid to fail. If theyre not mak-
ing mistakes, theyre not trying hard enough.
After toiling more than a decade in software
development, Mr. Andrews knows how stifling a
blame-based workplace can be. It was a ridiculous-
ly macho culture where we were expected to get
from A to Z by whatever means available, he says.
I only kept my job by delivering a functional prod-
uct, even if sometimes it was required to challenge
the laws of physics.
His experience inspired him to try to create an
environment where people werent petrified to confess
theyd blundered. If someone spent three days trying
something that didnt work just because they are afraid
to say they made a mistake, thats a huge amount of
time wastedespecially if its software development,
he says. If there is no freedom to admit mistakes,
errors grow like snowballs.
Mr. Andrews urges team members to push them-
selves in new directions and take calculated riskseven
if they dont pan out. All of his people work remotely,
but throughout projects he brings his team together to
collaborate in real time and brainstorm solutions if they
get stuck. Later, they meet to discuss what they learned
from a problem so it doesnt happen again.
Try Something New
Senior management and team leaders must trust
employees and give them the freedom to be innovative
without retribution, says Kevin Thomas, director of
Visionality Ltd., a Stevenage, U.K.-based project and
change management consultancy
specializing in the construction industry.
He dubs his strategy FUSION, which
stands for the six qualities that in his view
underlie successful partnerships:

Fairness

Unity

Seamless

Initiative

Openness

No blame.
Mr. Thomas developed the approach
while working at pharmaceutical power-
house Glaxo Wellcome, now Glaxo
SmithKline. Using the strategy, he says his
team cut delivery time by 40 percent and
capital costs by 18 percent on average over
conventional project management
methods. At least part of those savings
came from implementing innovative solu-
tions for project problems and the elimi-
nating the time and money lost spent try-
ing to cover them, he says.
The Blame Game
58 PM NETWORK | DECEMBER 2006 | WWW.PMI.ORG
During the construction of a series of labs at the
Glaxo Wellcome facility in Beckenham, U.K., for
example, his contractors were struggling to make a
deadline. At one point in the project, the electrical
and mechanical contractors both had to work in the
lab ceiling space simultaneously to meet the target.
However, the mechanical contractors required fixed
scaffolding and large equipment to install pipes and
ductwork in the ceiling void. That meant the electri-
cal team couldnt access to walls and floors to install
light fittings, fire alarms and the like. The project fell
five weeks behind.
Instead of griping about it and blaming each other,
the electrical contractors came to me with a solution,
he says. They pointed out that it made more sense for
them to work a second shift when they could remove
the scaffolding and do their work without interfering
with the other contractors.
Mr. Thomas paid a premium for them to work at
night. Within a few weeks, the project was back on
schedule. The approach was so successful it was
applied to a number of other areas and became a key
tool in the projects early completion, which translated
to cost savings.
He continues to promote his FUSION approach at
Visionality, regularly facilitating the development of
collaborative projects. From the beginning, all partici-
pantsfrom the general contractor to equipment
manufacturersare pulled together to agree on clear
guidelines on what is expected of them, how much
profit they will make and why they must work together
to successfully complete the project.
To ensure alignment, its best to use the same type
of contract for every member of the supply chain.
Doing business in this manner creates a partnership
of equals where everyone involved realizes the impor-
tance of completing the project on time and within
budget, he says.
By adopting a taskforce approach and letting the
team decide who does what, the team works collectively
and supports those in difficulty because if a project fails,
we all fail, Mr. Thomas says.
In that kind of environment, team members dont
come to him with problems, they come with solutions
usually after theyve been implemented. Mr. Thomas
admits they make the wrong choice on occasion and
work has to be redone, but those instances are few and
far between.
If you empower professional people to make deci-
sions, nine out of 10 decisions will be right. But if you
punish them for the one failure, you lose the other nine
The Blame Game
WHEN PEOPLE SEE
A SENIOR MANAGER GET
INVOLVED, THEY CALM
DOWN. NO ONE CAN HIDE,
AND WE STOP TALKING
ABOUT THE PROBLEM
AND START WORKING ON
A SOLUTION.
TERI TAKAI, STATE OF MICHIGAN, LANSING, MICH., USA
The Blame Game
Ms. Takais department was publicly criticized by a
senate committee.
When we realized we were off track, we escalated it
immediately to the senior level, Ms. Takai says. Instead
of firing the vendor, the IT department assessed its short-
comings. It then looked internally to identify experts in
its own pool of web developers and database managers to
fix the problems, says Jim Hogan, information officer for
the Michigan Department of IT. We didnt want to lose
more time arguing with the vendor or blaming the
department that hired it, he says. Instead, we focused
on where we are and what we needed to accomplish to
get test scores posted by the deadline.
Under Ms. Takais leadership, Mr. Hogan took over
the project and redirected the scope of the vendors
job. We identified the things that the vendor was good
at, like scanning test scores, and used those strengths,
while we developed a quality-control strategy to over-
see the project, he says.
By avoiding arguments over who was at fault, Mr.
Hogan was able to get the project on track to meet the
next deadline. The senate subcommittee was so
pleased with the response, it sent everyone on the team
a letter of congratulations, and the governor thanked
Mr. Hogan personally at a cabinet meeting.
By skipping the blame game, the team was able
to rescue the projectand avoid repeating the same mis-
take. In the end, we learned some valuable lessons that
we were able to apply to the next testing software project,
he says, and we havent missed a deadline since. PM
Sarah Fister Gale is a freelance business journalist
based in Chicago, Ill., USA.
successes, he says. Blame freezes people. It stops them
from trying anything or doing anything differently.
A Second Chance
For many managers, the no-blame concept makes
sense in theory. The trick is finding the balance
between freedom and accountability. As director of the
Michigan Department of IT and CIO for the State of
Michigan in Lansing, Mich., USA, Teri Takai doesnt
fire people for their mistakesbut she does expect
answers. When problems arise, we hold people
accountable, but we dont start with Whos off the
project? she says. We start with How do we fix it?
and we give them a chance to succeed.
Ms. Takai begins with an assessment of where the
project is in relation to the goals. She also checks
whether a single voice is leading the project, which she
considers key to preventing cross-purpose tasks and
scope creep. Once you get off track on a project, com-
munication can shut down, she says. In a blame-
based culture, different factions of a team tend to turn
against each other when troubles arise, clouding the
truth with accusations.
To avoid finger-pointing, Ms. Takai jumps in imme-
diately, showing the team shes serious about finding a
remedy and not looking for a scapegoat. When people
see a senior manager get involved, they calm down,
she says. No one can hide, and we stop talking about
the problem and start working on a solution.
Three years ago, for example, the state implemented
standardized testing for students. After test scores were
lost or not processed in time for schools to
make relevant changes because of vendor errors,
60 PM NETWORK | DECEMBER 2006 | WWW.PMI.ORG
BLAME FREEZES PEOPLE. IT STOPS THEM
FROM TRYING ANYTHING OR DOING ANYTHING
DIFFERENTLY. KEVIN THOMAS, VISIONALITY LTD., STEVENAGE, U.K.