XplanaZine

One of the things my father disliked intensely was the “blame game.” You know how it works. Something doesn’t go quite the way you planned, or you weren’t able to live up to the promises you made, so you do the easy thing and blame someone or something else for the failure. My father had a way of sensing an oncoming attack of the blame game from a mile off. No sooner had the words, “But Dad, you don’t understand, ______ (fill in the name of any other person here) did…” come out of my mouth than he would launch into a stern lecture about responsibility and the fact that he didn’t care about what _______ had done. He was only concerned about me, he said, and my ability to be accountable for the things I could control.Avoiding the blame game was not a lesson I learned exclusively at home, however. Coaches, managers, and company owners have all reinforced the lesson for me over the years. In fact, all of the successful business people I’ve had the opportunity to work with over the years have this one thing in common — they do not tolerate the blame game. Managers take full responsibility for everything that happens on their watch, regardless of the people to whom they have delegated tasks. Presidents assume full responsibility for the shortcomings of this companies or business units.

But not playing the blame game is more than a simple matter of accepting Harry Truman’s mantra of “The buck stops here.” It entails a comprehensive philosophy about life and vision. It means you believe in your own ideas and plans strongly enough that your only challenge is to execute them properly in order to be successful. It means that you have crafted your plans carefully and have accounted for all but the most unforeseeable contingencies. It means that, when things don’t go as you had hoped, you accept it as a simple lack of execution or vision, but also as an opportunity to improve.

In the technology business, there’s always a fair amount of the blame game being played. This week Napster is blaming Microsoft for its inability to make inroads against Apple’s iTunes. According
to Napster Chairman and Chief Executive Chris Gorog, “There is no question that their (Microsoft’s) execution has been less than brilliant over the last 12 months.” Gorog goes on to cite Microsoft’s inability to provide a seamless (and glitchless) media environment and the primary reason Napster hasn’t been able to take away any market share from Apple.

Of course, anyone paying attention knows that Microsoft is not the real problem with Napster’s success. Not is BlackBoard responsible for a lack of great online teaching, or NTP an evil company for claiming patent infringement against Blackberry. These companies are being blamed, in great part, simply because they have been successful. These cases (and pretty much every case involving technology companies blaming other technology companies) are more about the blame game than anything else. They are about companies crying “foul” because they 1) didn’t think of the idea first, 2) didn’t plan properly for innovation, or 3) didn’t have adequate backup plans.

The reality is that every company understands the rules and demands of competition going into the game. You have to be creative, plan meticulously, execute flawlessly, and have good timing. If you fail, it is generally because because you did not perform adequately in one of those areas.

The same thing can be said of education. If we fail — i.e. if Johnny or Suzy don’t learn what they should — it’s easier to blame someone or something else than to take the responsibility ourselves. I have found it much more palpable in the past to blame administrations, parents, students, poorly designed technology, inadequate facilities, and other teachers than to take personal responsibility for learning outcomes. And, naturally, if everyone in the chain of learning took the same attitude of responsibility our successes would be unimaginable.

I suppose that learning, in many ways, is much like business — it’s a selfish enterprise. And, if everyone in the community will act as selfishly as possible — assuming personal responsibility and reward for successes and failures — we can stop blaming others for failures and start realizing the potential of education.