I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about the rest of you, but I have found it super easy to start playing the blame game when things don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go my way.
\nOh wait, is that spinning? Or is that political divisiveness?
\nNo, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not going to go there – at least not yet.
\nI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just talking about the small day to day stuff.
\nHow easy is it to blame your co-workers when sales aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t up, or blame your husband or wife when the kids won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t behave, or blame your kids when you have a pounding headache?
\n(For the record, I have no experience with the last two – but its what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard).
\nAnyways, we all want to place the blame elsewhere in our attempts to look better than we really are.
\nAnd in an effort to cut down on blaming others, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve adopted a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No-Blame-Policy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d here in our office that is starting to become effective. — I think.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Blame Game Stops Here\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the 2nd inner-office slogan I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m preaching.
\nThe first was, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Status Quo Is No Mo.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nWe want our paper to be different than the rest. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to toe-a-line. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re putting a stop to the blame game and taking responsibility for all we can.
\nI feel a bit like one of those feel good motivational speakers, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d rather do that than bad mouth others who can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be there to defend themselves.
\nThe book of Job says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But those who do right will continue to do right, and those whose hands are not dirty with sin will grow stronger.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nMax Lucado asks in his book, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just Like Jesus,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d what if someone were to do a documentary of just your hands?
\nOuch. 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?
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to point blame as our hands sit by idle. But instead of doing that, why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we get out of our chairs and do something worthwhile to better the situation?
\nThe last two weeks, while politicians were placing blame on each other, churches and non-profits were saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to blame here, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s get our hands dirty and get these people out of New Orleans and into a safe, dry enviroment.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nEven our nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most valued treasure, our nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s celebrities were trudging through toxic waters to help people out of their homes, while politicians were looking to blame each other.
\nI sent out a question via e-mail to a number of local presidents, VP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and marketing folks to see what advice they might give President Bush in the wake of Katrina.
\nSome of their results were very interesting.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My advice: Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry about public image; what people will see and remember is results. He has two problems.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153First, 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n– Pat Christ, HH City Council
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done so far has been good. He has recognized the deficiencies in the response and put heat on the FEMA director.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He has also come out and publicly taken blame.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153But, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to fix the problem. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think money will fix the problem.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Pouring 50-150 billion dollars in the region with little oversight and no real coordinated plan will not work.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we saw that the biggest breakdown was at the state and local level.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My suggestion would be to put the department of homeland security and FEMA under the coastguard.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Maybe even tie border patrol into the same agency. It was very apparent that two things worked really well in this relief effort.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The military and local churches. Let the local churches help and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t throw money at things that are already being taken care of. And. . . get more organized.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n– David Leigh, CEO Harvest Technologies, Belton
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stay personally involved, keep pushing the response teams and insure aid is prompt without red tape.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\n– Dr. Jerry Bawcom, President UMHB
\nNone of those who responded said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Find out who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to blame. They all said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Get the job done.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d
\nQuit 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.
\nI do have to give props to Bush Tuesday for taking blame. I know he hated to admit failure, but it needed to be done.
\nIn leadership roles, it may not be your total fault, but you have to take responsibility for those under you.
\nAnd remember, while you may be pointing one finger my way, you have three more pointing back at you.
\nOh and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Brownie – you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing a heck of a job.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know about the rest of you, but I have found it super easy to start playing the blame game when things don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go my way. Oh wait, is that spinning? Or is that political divisiveness? No, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not going to go there – at least not yet. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just talking about the small … Continue reading This weeks column: Hands<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-67","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}