In good Lean operations, blame is never the goal of problem-solving efforts. It is sometimes a byproduct, as, on occasion, the facts lead you to a specific person. But even then, in most cases, their shortcomings are the result of either a poor process or poor training. True people problems as a cause for mistakes are less common than most think.

Despite this, companies that don’t embrace a continuous improvement culture frequently find themselves more focused on who made the mistake rather than what the mistake was or how to fix it. The underlying assumption is that if you know who is responsible, you can apply stern discipline and correct the problem.

Out of this way of thinking comes blamestorming. That is the practice of a group getting together to discuss who was at fault when there is a problem.

The main reason that blamestorming is ineffective as a problem-solving tool is that it simply doesn’t work well. On top of that, it doesn’t show much respect for people.

For blamestorming to “work”, there are a few conditions that must first be met.

There must be a good, effective process in place.
The person must have been properly trained on the process.
The person has the tools, equipment, and materials that are specified in the process.
The person is not following the process.

Number 4 implies that the mistakes are through an overt choice. The fallacy of blamestorming is that in most cases, the person is trying to do the right thing, but is set up for failure. The first three conditions are not met, so the person can’t be expected to be successful.

Blamestorming, however, doesn’t care about facts. It cares about making sure that someone is identified as being at fault. The person can then be disciplined into being more effective.

Some of this article is tongue-in-cheek. The truth is that sometimes people do cut corners for personal reasons. They might be able to take little breaks to check their phones if they take a shortcut, or maybe go home early, or save on some labor. Most people, though, will try to do the right thing and only deviate from processes when they have a work-related reason.

Why might a person cut corners and intentionally disregard a process? Maybe parts are coming in differently than the process says they should. The process might call for a tool that is worn out or missing or broken, and the operator is using a substitute. When a situation changes, most frontline employees can do little about it on their own.

In these examples, the issue is a leadership failure and not a people problem. It is not fair to hold employees’ feet to the fire when they are just trying to do the best they can in a bad situation.