Dive 92: A Mess is an Opportunity
Hey, it’s Alvin!
Let me tell you a secret.
I broke a software service used by thousands of customers around the world.
Well, ok, it’s not really a secret. As soon as I found out, I let my team know I screwed up. We quickly rolled back the change I released. That bought me time to find the bug, fix it, and redeploy the application. Luckily, few people were using the software when it was broken.
“I’m fired.”
At least, that’s how I felt.
Instead, our team got together to do an RCA, or root cause analysis. An RCA is a process of finding all the reasons something happened. And, yes, there will almost always be more than one reason for a big enough catastrophe.
I was embarrassed. Terrified. My heart was racing and my voice was choking up as I went through the painstaking details of how it all happened. My team and I went through all the details to figure out everything we could’ve each done differently to prevent the next incident. And I was glad to go through the whole RCA with the team because I realized:
“When you’re on the Titanic, you load the lifeboats; you don’t stop to yell at the iceberg.”
- Debra Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond
The RCA was not about blame. It was not about pointing a finger at someone and saying, “it’s all your fault.” The RCA was all about learning. For every team member. Because we all need to learn from one another to improve. Make no mistake…
I broke the software.
I don’t deny my responsibility for what happened. But what’s important isn’t pointing the finger because that’s unproductive. What’s productive is learning and growing from mistakes. Whether you are the one who made the mistake or someone else. Some call this…
A blameless culture.
But a blameless culture isn’t just important in software development. It’s important for a free society because freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. Let me give you a personal example to show you what I mean.
Responsibility for Ourselves
I have family members who hate responsibilities. I’m sure you’ve met similar people in your life. If you ask this person where they’d like to go for dinner, they’d insist that you decide. Always. When you ask them to decide between two options, they somehow pass the ball back to you. And they always defer to “experts.” Mindlessly.
For example, I have a relative who visits my grandma occasionally. He’ll be like, “oh, by the way, grandma needs new socks. The nurse (who takes care of my grandma) says she ran out of socks.” Except, my parents just bought her new socks a few weeks ago.
But he just shrugs it off by insisting that the nurse suggested that grandma is out of socks. Then, the next time we visited, we’d open the drawer next to grandma’s bed to find a drawer full of socks! Look, this isn’t about socks…
There are people who defer to experts. Not because they’re humble, but because they’re lazy. Because they don’t want to be blamed when decisions go wrong. And they probably don’t want to clean up any messes either. It doesn’t matter whether the experts are real or frauds. A person who shirks responsibility just needs someone else to point their fingers at.
When enough people in a group deflect responsibility, you get a culture of blame. A culture of blame discourages people from taking responsibilities because people don’t want to be shamed for making mistakes. What does responsibility have to do with freedom?
Responsibility is power.
The less responsible we are for ourselves, the more decisions we defer to others, the more power we give others over our own lives. When we give up responsibility, we lose control over our own lives. Because when we defer to others, we let others make our decisions for us. What happens when enough people give up their power to others?
Authoritarianism.
The worst atrocities in human history happened because people mindlessly obeyed the orders of an authority figure. Those are situations where you don’t need to make any important decisions. In fact, you’re discouraged from thinking for yourself. Just do as you’re told. No questions asked.
The ultimate fate when enough people surrender responsibilities to higher authorities is we no longer have personal responsibilities except those to the ruling state.
We lose freedom.
Of course, responsibility extends beyond ourselves.
Responsibility for Others
We are also responsible for those who depend on us.
As leaders are for their teams.
As teachers are for their students.
As parents are for their children.
Parents make decisions for their children because children generally need help making healthy long-term decisions for themselves when they’re young. That’s why we teach kids how to think critically for themselves in a free society. So that when they become adults, they can take full responsibility for their own decisions. And keep society free. But that’s not enough to encourage responsibility.
This is the value of promoting and embracing a blameless culture. I’m not saying that criminals shouldn’t be punished. In fact, they should be because that’s part of taking responsibility. I’m just saying that when something goes wrong, we need to focus much more on preventing the same mistakes in the future. By learning from them. No matter who made mistakes.
We need to spend much less time finding someone to blame. Because all that does is give away our power to make things right.
The power is in our hands as citizens to build a healthy, functioning society. That can’t happen if we’re always looking for someone else to take responsibility. Freedom means that sometimes we have to clean up a mess we did not make. For the sake of ourselves, our neighbours, and our society.
Lazy people see a mess as a cost. They think, “I’m not putting effort into cleaning it up because I didn’t cause it. It’s not my fault. I’m not to blame.”
The most successful people I ever worked with see a mess as an opportunity. They think, “here’s a chance for me to make the world a better place.” But they don’t stop there. They like to think of ways of preventing similar messes in the future. The solutions successful people devise add value to society that other people gladly pay for. Hence, their success.
A mess is not a cost. It’s an opportunity.
And it starts with personal responsibility.
Feel free to email me at belowthesurfacetop@gmail.com or click “Message Alvin” below if you have questions or comments. I’d love the hear from you.
Thank you for reading. Be responsible. And I’ll see you in the next one.