Tale of 3 letters
When everyone is responsible but no one is accountable.
Once upon a time during my ISO auditing training courses the trainer told a story.. The story that has been proving itself as true over times, shown the human nature and made it easy to see the bigger picture and to not take it personally when it has been “applied” to yourself. So here goes the story with my extended version.
The Tale.
The Successor of previous manager got a specific instructions during his onboarding training at work.
“There are 3 letters I left you in the desk’s drawer. And whenever there is a problem to solve, open the 1st letter. If after a while the problem still occurs and appears not to be fixed, open the 2nd letter. If the problem reoccurs and still everyone is complaining, open the 3rd letter.”
It didn't take long before problems arose at work and had to be resolved. So the new manager remembered the instructions and went to find the letters.
He opened the 1st letter.
It said: “BLAME ME!”
So the new manager got so excited about the solution of the problem, blamed previous managed no longer working in the company that he messed everything up and now because of that this particular problem appeared. Clients and management are happy with this answer, problem (source of it) is identified and everything can be fixed.
Time goes and same problem or the modified version of it occurs. The new manager understands that everyone is angry and demands the problem to be fixed ASAP.
He goes and opens the 2nd letter.
It says: “BLAME THE PROCESS OR SYSTEM”
New manager is super happy - he can now explain the reasons of the problem, change the focus and work finally on “real cause” of the problem. Clients and management are satisfied and leave him alone.
But the problem does not go away, it multiplies and expands, everyone starts to complain again. The new manager is stressed again and doesn’t know what to do (as all the previous times).
He runs to open the 3rd letter.
It says: “START WRITING 3 LETTERS”
THE END.
In reality there comes even more letters - one very widespread- “Blame other department or organisation”.
The cycle of blaming everyone and everything instead of working on the problem, taking the responsibility and being accountable has completed. But does it bring the result for every involved party? Most often this is just a dance of keeping illusion alive that companies or individuals really care and know what they are doing. Being accountable, honest and truly responsible for everything you do, say, believe requires a lot of courage. Same is with taking risks - you need a courage to do so and an ability to take full responsibility for the resulting consequences.
And this is not only a story about some individuals who are so afraid of their management that they try to find someone else to blame for their incompetencies, but also about whole companies and organisations which “play the game” with their clients. Whenever there are problems with projects, deliveries what so ever, game of 3 LETTERS starts.
First - “sorry, previous manager messed everything up, now we know and the issue is resolved” ; Second - “sorry, there are some third party’s system failure and the process appears to be interrupted. Now we know and the issue is resolved”; Third and final - “sorry, your client manager on our side really messed up. As soon as we noticed it, we fired him. Now you are in safe hands, because now the real problem was identified and solved!” Guess what!?… that particular individual (neither the previous one or the system) was the cause of the problem. It always comes to longer line of cultural and managerial issues, lack of knowledge or capacities behind the boosted sales marketing decks and few more chaos elements. Only thing what’s missing - willingness to work with the cause of the problem - first to find it and then to take responsibility fixing it.
I wonder, how come this game is so popular? This magical problem solving technique with various modifications is so widespread and acceptable in society that we don’t need much - just give us a name of the guilty one.. As if that would magically solve everything.
But, HEY, if you play the game so eagerly and accept its rules, don’t be surprised that one day you end up being the one writing 3 letters.
