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Common man Quote by Gene Kim

“When these accidents affect our customers, we seek to understand why it happened. The root cause is often deemed to be human error, and the all too common management response is to “name, blame, and shame” the person who caused the problem.† And, either subtly or explicitly, management hints that…” quote by Gene Kim
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““When these accidents affect our customers, we seek to understand why it happened. The root cause is often deemed to be human error, and the all too common management response is to “name, blame, and shame” the person who caused the problem.† And, either subtly or explicitly, management hints that the person guilty of committing the error will be punished. They then create more processes and approvals to prevent the error from happening again. Dr. Sidney Dekker, who codified some of the key elements of safety culture and coined the term just culture, wrote, “Responses to incidents and accidents that are seen as unjust can impede safety investigations, promote fear rather than mindfulness in people who do safety-critical work, make organizations more bureaucratic rather than more careful, and cultivate professional secrecy, evasion, and self-protection.” These issues are especially problematic in the technology value stream—our work is almost always performed within a complex system, and how management chooses to react to failures and accidents leads to a culture of fear, which then makes it unlikely that problems and failure signals are ever reported. The result is that problems remain hidden until a catastrophe occurs.””

Gene Kim

About This Quote

Source Book: The Phoenix Project, 2018

Blaming individuals for errors creates fear, hindering safety and learning; a just culture encourages openness and systemic improvement.

In simple terms: Blaming stops learning; a just culture promotes safety.

Key Takeaway

Adopt a just culture approach.

Themes

safety culture accountability systems thinking

Mood

cautionary instructive

Type

organizational ethical

When to use this quote

  • manufacturing
  • software development
  • healthcare
  • aviation
  • risk management

Key Concepts

Just culture human error organizational learning

Questions to Reflect On

  • How can organizations transition to a just culture?
  • What safeguards prevent misuse of “just culture”?
A Different Perspective

May be difficult to shift entrenched blame habits.

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