Stuck on Stupid

Posted September 26th, 2005

Like others, I am interested in what is happening in the Gulf Coast areas after Hurricane Katrina. Lt. General Russel Honere was quoted in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on September 14, 2005. He appears to be an excellent commander and he certainly provides good soundbites for the media. His spokesman said that Honore has a knack for putting himself at the decisive place at the decisive time.

When asked about why the initial response wasn’t better, he chided the media for second guessing and looking back. He is working toward a better future. He uses a football analogy to say the storm always wins the first quarter, but the game has four quarters.

If a team is behind 25-0 at the end of the first quarter, the coach doesn’t spend the rest of the game calling the quarterback and the rest of the team stupid. Honore is quoted, “He focuses on the other team. We can spend our time stuck on stupid in the first quarter or we can turn our energy” toward reconstruction and revival.

My work with operational excellence requires personal responsibility and accountability. It also involves analyzing the causes of incidents in order to develop corrective actions and share lessons learned with others. But it does not spend time stuck on stupid blaming people who generally blame themselves when they fail to do all they can to prevent bad outcomes. A mindful culture is a learning culture, not a fingerpointing culture.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 26th, 2005 at 4:42 pm and is filed under In the News.