It's a Choice

I have been a manager for many years now. The thing that most interferes with getting things done is not that people make mistakes, not that they don't know what they're doing, not that they are lazy, crazy, or stupid. It's that people say those things about each other, blame each other for what goes wrong, and fight with each other. All work stops while people attack or defend, try to get out of the way, or come over to see what's going on. If we eliminate the fighting, the problems are easy to solve. What does it take?

It takes believing that the person is not the problem. If we believe the person is the problem, we naturally want to get rid of them, and they naturally resist that solution. If, on the other hand, when something goes wrong, we only want to help, we can solve our problems without too much pain and suffering.

We have a choice about how we react. That choice makes all the difference.