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I don’t know about the rest of you, but I have found it super easy to start playing the blame game when things don’t go my way.
Oh wait, is that spinning? Or is that political divisiveness?
No, I’m not going to go there – at least not yet.
I’m just talking about the small day to day stuff.
How easy is it to blame your co-workers when sales aren’t up, or blame your husband or wife when the kids won’t behave, or blame your kids when you have a pounding headache?
(For the record, I have no experience with the last two – but its what I’ve heard).
Anyways, we all want to place the blame elsewhere in our attempts to look better than we really are.
And in an effort to cut down on blaming others, we’ve adopted a “No-Blame-Policy” here in our office that is starting to become effective. — I think.
“The Blame Game Stops Here” is the 2nd inner-office slogan I’m preaching.
The first was, “The Status Quo Is No Mo.”
We want our paper to be different than the rest. We don’t want to toe-a-line. We’re putting a stop to the blame game and taking responsibility for all we can.
I feel a bit like one of those feel good motivational speakers, but I’d rather do that than bad mouth others who can’t be there to defend themselves.
The book of Job says, “But those who do right will continue to do right, and those whose hands are not dirty with sin will grow stronger.”
Max Lucado asks in his book, “Just Like Jesus,” what if someone were to do a documentary of just your hands?
Ouch. Would my hands be shown giving or taking? Working or resting? Pointing a finger in blame, or pointing a finger back and me and taking responsibility?
It’s easy to point blame as our hands sit by idle. But instead of doing that, why don’t we get out of our chairs and do something worthwhile to better the situation?
The last two weeks, while politicians were placing blame on each other, churches and non-profits were saying, “We don’t care who’s to blame here, let’s get our hands dirty and get these people out of New Orleans and into a safe, dry enviroment.”
Even our nation’s most valued treasure, our nation’s celebrities were trudging through toxic waters to help people out of their homes, while politicians were looking to blame each other.
I sent out a question via e-mail to a number of local presidents, VP’s and marketing folks to see what advice they might give President Bush in the wake of Katrina.
Some of their results were very interesting.
“My advice: Don’t worry about public image; what people will see and remember is results. He has two problems.
“First, he needs to get the region back to a normal way of life and start the rebuilding. Put a good leader in charge, give him the resources he needs and let them do the job. Secondly, we need to fix our system for dealing with catastrophes by eliminating bureaucracies, red tape and petty power struggles.”
– Pat Christ, HH City Council
“I think what he’s done so far has been good. He has recognized the deficiencies in the response and put heat on the FEMA director.
“He has also come out and publicly taken blame.
“But, that’s not going to fix the problem. I don’t think money will fix the problem.
“Pouring 50-150 billion dollars in the region with little oversight and no real coordinated plan will not work.
“I think we saw that the biggest breakdown was at the state and local level.
“My suggestion would be to put the department of homeland security and FEMA under the coastguard.
“Maybe even tie border patrol into the same agency. It was very apparent that two things worked really well in this relief effort.
“The military and local churches. Let the local churches help and don’t throw money at things that are already being taken care of. And. . . get more organized.”
– David Leigh, CEO Harvest Technologies, Belton
“Stay personally involved, keep pushing the response teams and insure aid is prompt without red tape.”
– Dr. Jerry Bawcom, President UMHB
None of those who responded said, “Find out who’s to blame. They all said, “Get the job done.”
Quit worrying about who you can point the finger at in you situation and get the job done, then move on and figure out how you can improve next time.
I do have to give props to Bush Tuesday for taking blame. I know he hated to admit failure, but it needed to be done.
In leadership roles, it may not be your total fault, but you have to take responsibility for those under you.
And remember, while you may be pointing one finger my way, you have three more pointing back at you.
Oh and “Brownie – you’re doing a heck of a job.”

This is a great blog. Check it out.
photo-a-day.blogspot.com
I’ll have to add it to the blogroll for sure. It might even inspire me to add a third blog with just pictures. Who knows.
Where do I have the time?

Boy, this is an easy game to play. Especially when 90-percent of your company works in another office.
But, we’ve adopted a no-blame-policy here in our office that is starting to become effective. I think.
“The Blame Game Stops Here” is the 2nd office slogan I’m preaching.
I feel a bit like one of those feel good motivational speakers, but I’d rather do that than bad mouth others who can’t be there to defend themselves.
And here’s an interesting scripture on the topic of work…
But those who do right will continue to do right, and those whose hands are not dirty with sin will grow stronger — Job 17:9
Max Lucado asked, what if someone were to do a documentary of just your hands?
Ouch. Would my hands be shown giving or taking? Working or resting? Pointing a finger in blame, or pointing a finger back and me and taking responsibility?
Props to Bush yesterday for taking blame. I know he hated to admit failure, but it needed to be done.
In leadership roles, it may not be your total fault, but you have to take responsibility for those under you.
He may have saved his presidency by doing just that.
Oh and “Brownie – you’re doing a heck of a job.” HA

Brian Bailey lists his Top 10 albums of all time today.
I thought I’d do something slightly different, and list my Top 10 Music Videos (as of today and that are accessible on Launchcast.com. Because what good is me telling you they’re my favorites if you can’t watch them too?

So here they are. My Top 10 Favorite Music Videos (that are available on Launchcast.com):
10. Taylor – Jack Johnson
Ben Stiller is great in this video. And its just a fun Jack Johnson song.
9. Walk On – U2
The video itself doesn’t particularly wow me. But it is U2. And the song itself wows me. And the song will always remind me of my sister Amy. The night before she died, I sent her a text message from this song, “I know it aches and your heart it breaks. You can only take so much – But Walk On”
8. November Rain – Guns N Roses
A defining video of my early teen years. Brings back lots of lost memories. But the video’s not on Launchcast – so I give you, “Patience” – a song All Natural loved to cover back in the day. Anyone remember if we played this song live or just “in the studio?” I do remember Jake busting out with the Axl Rose dance on several occasions.
7. Buddy Holly – Weezer
Awesome. Just awesome. It was cool enough to come as an extra on every Windows 95 CD-Rom disk. Remember that? “Oh and please, try the fish.”
6. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
MTV and VH1 has this video at the top of all their video lists, but it only makes #6 for me. There’s nothing amazing about this video, but it impacted my generation and was part of an amazing rock album that changed music drastically in the early 1990’s.
5. Hurt – Johnny Cash
I doubt anyone would have guessed this would be Cash’s last video or single before his death, but its a great re-make of the Alice and Chains song. I love the House of Cash Museum sign as well.
4. If God Would Send His Angels – U2
A great looking video. Something totally different, with Bono recording his part of the song (vocals) at half speed, with everyone else filmed at a normal speed. And by the way, if you watch. After the firemen walk out, you can see Bono pass by the window in the lower half of the screen and then the upper half.
3. Sitting, Waiting – Jack Johnson
Super creative, great sound, great song. And for those wondering, Johnson recorded the entire video in one take and was mouthing the words to the track played backwards. Then they just simply played the video backward and the track forward on the final verson. If that makes any sense what-so-ever.
2. Numb – U2
Surprised? Another U2 video? I’ve always loved this video, and its one of several great videos from the Zooropa album. Maybe I should have just done a Top 10 U2 Videos list.
1. It’s a tie!
Stuck in a Momement You Can’t Get Out Of – U2
Sunday Bloody Sunday (live) – U2
Stuck in a Moment was Amy’s favorite U2 song and just a great “Hey you’re down, but not out” song. The video is great with all the U2 references. And as a bit of trivia, the entire football game sequence was filmed at the Astrodome in Houston with a police and fireman football league playing the roll of the football teams. The shots with the band and fans were all filmed in Germany.
Sunday is the quenisential U2 anthem. I wasn’t a fan until Achtung Baby came out, but once I got a tast of the band and heard the songs that made them, Sunday Bloody Sunday has always been a favorite. And I’ve never been disappointed seeing a live performance of it. Red Rock, Rattle and Hum or this version at Live Aid.

So what are you favorite videos? Let me know – and no, you don’t have to include links to each of them.

If you’ve just found “us” from Scoble’s link today. Greetings. Enjoy yourself and have a great time.

Chris Troutman found this somehow. I think someone at Google might be trying to get a little political.
Go to Google’s home page.
Type in failure.
Then hit the “I Feel Lucky” button.
Interesting….

*EDIT: If you just do a search for failure you’ll also find an interesting result. Look at the top two entries.

*EDIT: MSN has somewhat similar results, but apparently leans to the other end of the political spectrum.