Management nugget number 8: If you are aiming for delivery then sometimes planning to take the blame is a valid project strategy

Nugget 8:  If you are aiming for delivery then sometimes planning to take the blame is a valid project strategy.

Explanation:

OK this is another one where you will have to bare with me to the end. There are some organisations where fear of getting blamed for ANYTHING is overwhelming. This might be about only a single document or the ultimate delivery of the project, but whatever the level, a huge amount of effort will be put into avoiding actually getting something done, because only people who do things can do them wrong.

Such organisations might be Government departments where it is a job for life and the risk of loosing it might be too great, or merely one where things have stayed the same for a long time and any change is likely to be blamed for any bad thing that might happen, but nevertheless these places exist and as someone who is supposed to deliver change and improvement you have to combat it.

Working at multiple corporations and government departments I have found the easiest way of doing this is to take the blame yourself!!,  now you don’t have to do anything actually wrong to take the blame, you really just have to give the opportunity for somebody to blame you for something and then not defend yourself.

My personal favourite way of doing this is when there is a technical documentation delivery needed to get the project rolling, so you do it yourself for a first draught without the help of specialists within the business, this will most likely mean you will get things wrong.

That will give people the opportunity to go for you, the same people who are frozen into immobility will blast you, say everything is wrong and everything is your fault,  BUT it’s not actually a big deal because it’s a small thing at a beginning of the project, and now you have the project moving and you’ve got one more step closer to a deliverable, also these people feel empowered, they stand a better chance of running with the project and doing more, and all you had to do is have some thick skin and take some flak.

Now I know this sounds manipulative and cheap, and that’s because it is!!, but unlike so many other manipulative tactics, no one but you gets hurts and if you use it to get your project delivered successfully, then that is damage I think a grown manager can take.

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

 

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