Blame Fixes Nothing - Principle 2

In this week's episode of the Safer VRS Podcast, I continue to discuss the principles of human operational performance as they apply to safety and loss prevention in the vacation rental industry.

I emphasize that safety is not just about accident prevention but rather the presence of controls. We can anticipate and provide controls that address potential issues, and it can be as simple as that.

Moving on to the second principle, I talk about how blame fixes nothing. Assigning blame is emotionally important, but not operationally important when we are working to improve our operations. Instead, we should be aware of our tendency to blame others and dig into the context of why something occurred, what controls were present, and what systems we can design to prevent such incidents from happening again.

I relate these principles to the vacation rental industry and how business leaders have the responsibility to manage and own everything in their business. By not blaming individuals and focusing on improving systems, we can create a safer and more effective operation.

I also discuss the importance of understanding what happened in a situation rather than focusing on what should have happened. Blaming individuals for mistakes or errors is not an effective way to solve system problems. Instead, it is important to analyze the conditions that led to the failure and address those issues.

I caution against counterfactual thinking, which leads to blame, and emphasize that mistakes are not choices and errors are not a conscious decision to fail. I encourage property managers and business leaders to take ownership of their systems and understand what is not working when failures occur.

Join me on this insightful episode as we explore these important principles in the context of the vacation rental industry.

Create a safe day.