True Teamwork Requires Avoiding the ‘Blame Game’

The “blame game” is one of the most unproductive work practices. 

We’ve all seen or been in situations where others try to find a scapegoat or determine who is at fault. This can happen when peers point a finger at each other or when managers blame one of their employees. 

It’s a bad situation for everyone, and it can result in a culture that centers around blame.

A Game Everyone Loses

A leader we worked with said she wanted a culture of openness. So, she asked her team members to share how they felt and encouraged them to try new and different ways of doing things. She said it was OK to make mistakes and that work was a learning process.

Guess what happened the first time an error was made? The leader called out the team member and told her how bad the mistake was — in a meeting with the entire team present. The employee, who had gone out of her way to try something new, felt bad. 

After this, team members were hesitant to try new ideas and different ways of doing things. They actively shut down, becoming less creative and innovative. Instead of a culture of learning, the workplace developed a culture of keeping secrets, not telling the boss and giving others a hard time if they make mistakes. 

A “blame game” culture leads to problematic behavior. Here are a few typical results:

• It makes people defensive
• It creates a sense of shame
• It creates fearful and deceitful behaviors
• It makes people tell lies, or at least not the whole truth
• It makes people go behind each other’s backs
• It creates cliques and sub-groups — “us and them” thinking
• It makes people likely to return blame.

Ultimately, the blame game hinders learning, erodes personal responsibility and accountability, and leads to excuse-making — resulting in a false or non-existent teamwork.

Breaking the Cycle

The blame game is not a fun or productive game to play; that’s crystal clear.

How can we break blame game habits? Here are eight strategies:

1) Be clear on ownership. Take responsibility — say what you will do and by when — and keep your promises. Clarify expectations and set up clear goals and deadlines, roles, responsibilities and work processes before crises occur, reducing confusion and the temptation to place blame.

2) Hold yourself and others accountable. Implement transparent accountability systems that focus on learning and improvement rather than punishment. Own up to mistakes (because we all make them) and explain what you will do differently going forward. By being observant enough to spot mistakes and understand the dynamics, leaders can role-model a culture of accountability — where mistakes are owned and discussed, lessons learned, and solutions prioritized over scapegoating.

3) Embrace a true learning mindset. Actively look for learning moments and seek people to work with and learn from. Be a mentor, have a mentor and practice a non-stop learning mindset.

4) Confront real systemic issues instead of just focusing on individual errors. 

5) Reduce fear and build trust. Neuroscience shows that you will never get the best out of fearful people — they’ll engage in “fight or flight.” Fear makes people reluctant to report problems or take necessary risks. Always treat others with respect. Start by assuming positive intent — people typically mean well and do the best they can.

6) Focus on solutions; too much of a problem focus tempts us to look for who is at fault. Shift from punitive accountability to supportive learning, where employees feel safe to admit mistakes and contribute to solutions.

7) Limit the risk of crises being exacerbated by hidden issues or delayed responses due to fear of blame.

8) Build resilience. By role-modeling ownership and collective responsibility as a leader, teams become more resilient and better equipped to handle adversity. This encourages open communication, where issues are surfaced early and addressed in a constructive manner, building trust and enabling teams to collaborate more effectively in crises.

In addition, consider: If you’re  someone who doesn’t play the blame game, you’re probably also someone who (1) people want to work with,  (2) is trusted, (3) creates great team spirit, engagement and drive and  (4) delivers results. Keep up the  great work.

As we explore in our award-winning book Supercharged Leader: Develop Your Mind and Skillset to Deal with Anything, healthy curiosity, innovation and non-stop learning (a big antidote to the blame game) are the only ways to travel in a fast-paced world of constant transformation.