Why do so many avoid confronting the reality of failure? In plant asset management, we are surrounded by people who steadfastly don’t want to know about nor talk about failures. Yet failure does happen; let’s not ignore this simple fact.

The blame game

Unlike a murder mystery, failure analysis (FA) is not a game of whodunnit. The knee-jerk response to blame someone rarely solves the problem, nor does it create reliability in the workplace.

If the routine is to blame someone when a failure is revealed, fewer people will reveal failures. If it’s clear we don’t want to talk about failures in a civilized manner, well, we’ll just not talk about failures.

Of course, failures will still occur. In the blame-centric organization, the majority of people who have the ability to understand and solve problems simply turn and avoid “seeing” failures. When friends and colleagues are vilified in their attempt to “solve problems,” it becomes clear that this is not a safe environment in which to point out failures.

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