Motivation- Mistakes and Blame

Story 1 - A Tale
Once upon a time a plaque was raging among the animals. The lion, considered
the king of beasts, decided to hold a trial and find out who among all the animals
was responsible for this dreadful plague, because it must be due to some sin that
had been committed. Thereupon the animals were summoned to his presence,
and when asked about their respective sins, they confessed. It was now the turn
of the bear, the wolf, and the tiger. They confessed that they tore asunder,
mutilated, and killed animals and humans without mercy. The verdict was "not
guilty," and they were exonerated from all blame by the lion, who simply said that
what they did was only their duty and function.

At last it was the turn of the lamb to appear before the court. She began to
wonder what wrong she done, when suddenly she remembered that on one
occasion, because she was very hungry, she saw some straw sticking out of the
shepherd's shoe and ate it. That was it, then. The lamb, without any further
investigation, was at once condemned, judged, and pronounced guilty. "For her
sin," roared the lion, "has this terrible disaster befallen us all."

Story 2 - IBM
Although IBM has had a number of successes, one of its big failures was the IBM
PC Jr., announced in late 1983 (this is the pc that was first introduced with the
chiclet style keyboard). This has often been called the "Edsel of computers" due
to its design. When it was dropped a few years later due to slow sales, the
project manager dropped in on his manager and asked him, "if he should clean
out his desk," as he was expecting to be fired. His manager replied, "We just
spent several million dollars training you. Why would we want to fire you?"
Read and discuss the first short story below.

Why do organizations look for someone to

blame when things do not go right?
Why do some people overlook greater
misdeeds, while focusing in on minor ones?
What kind of climate is introduced into
organizations when blame is the goal when
mistakes are made?
Read and discuss the second short story
What was the final goal of this costly mistake?
Are mistakes good for a company? (Failures
are compasses that point to learning
opportunities. And learning opportunities are
the pathways that lead us to success.)