Guiding Principle # 3: Blamelessness In this column I explore the third in a series of five Guiding Principles on Diversity and Inclusion: Blamelessness. Blaming or fault-finding is a common, knee-jerk response to injustice or inequity. "Who's to blame for this?" "Who's at fault?" Blame misleads us to believe that if we can find the one to blame then we can truly fix the situation and have justice once and for all. This is the illusion of this paradigm: assigning blame contributes to the very injustice we wish to correct. When we blame a particular person or group we end up: 1) scapegoating, 2) ignoring or minimizing the context of the situation, and 3) avoiding our own responsibility in the situation. Scapegoating Scapegoating is an age-old practice, well-tested as an expression of Anti-Jewish oppression, that finds a convenient group or individual to blame for current difficulties or troubles. Today, scapegoating provides the foundation for modern-day discourse against newcomers, foreigners and immigrants throughout the world. The widely accepted and largely unchallenged practice of scapegoating has also seeped into our organizations and personal relationships. You can see this when an organization emphasizes a "problem person" who needs to be "fixed' or gotten rid of, as if this will magically make the the difficulty go away. How easy it would be if this were true, but it rarely, if ever, is. However much we'd like to pinpoint a specific individual (or group) as the problem, we cannot deny they are part of a larger system which encourages, through reward or fear, the very behaviors we wish to eradicate. Ignoring or Minimizing the Context Removing or attempting to "fix" a group or individual is misguided at best and perpetuates oppressive, punitive, fear-producing behavior at worst. Any one individual or group of people is never the problem. Whether in an organization, a personal relationship, or society as a whole, blame either minimizes or denies the full context in which any individual or group is shaped and encouraged to act. Even if the behavior is one that must be interrupted or stopped because it is inappropriate, we can do so more effectively with an understanding of the context which co-created their response. When we acknowledge and seek to understand the full extent of the external factors impacting this group or individual, we can intervene in a more appropriate way that addresses the root causes of the problem behavior. For example, a department manager was consistently late to work and struggled to get to meetings on time. He was disorganized and lacked focus. His team felt that he was unable to provide the support they needed and that his behavior was unprofessional, reflecting poorly on the department as a whole. The solution the team came up with was to get rid of him. Any difficulties the team was experiencing were scapegoated on the leader. Yes, the leader did arrive very late to work on most days--and also stayed well into the night most evenings. Chronic insomnia along with other medical conditions made it physically impossible for him to start his work day earlier. It also turned out he was managing his department without any administrative support. Given the high visibility of his programs throughout the organization, he was completely overwhelmed handling it on his own. Without this crucial support, his pre-existing difficulties with promptness and focus were exacerbated and became an obvious target for scapegoating. Upon further inquiry, it became evident that more than the leader's actions were contributing to the challenges in the department. Gossip, sabotage and other attack tactics common in the team's dynamics not only undermined the leader but also the entire team's effectiveness. While the leader certainly needed to make changes in his behavior, as long as the team could blame the leader, they didn't have to examine how their own behaviors and attitudes co-created this outcome. Avoiding Our Own Responsibility When we blame others we make ourselves powerless. In the blame paradigm we give power away to another individual or group, making them "wrong"--and making ourselves victims at the same time. I use the word "victim" very intentionally yet with great caution because of how it has been misused to target people for their own difficulties. The scapegoating phenomenon makes the target of blame the "perpetrator" in this dynamic, which, by default, creates a "victim." These two roles co-create the dynamic--even as we may want to deny or fight against such labels. By acknowledging the ways our own behaviors and attitudes contribute to the situation we want to change, we can have more influence on the situation. We do this by altering the only aspect we have any real control over--ourselves. The need to find and assign blame keeps us hooked into the dynamic. Without the distraction of blame, we can more flexibly impact the situation with both confidence and compassion. Blamelessness Do I blame others? Absolutely. I fall into the trap of needing to make others wrong, especially when I feel powerless to influence change. Yet, when I can reach for a perspective that refuses to find fault--against someone else or against myself--I reclaim my own power to effect change. I hold the individual or group accountable while acknowledging my own contribution to the situation--with compassion for both of us. As I address and shift my part of the dynamic, the change I couldn't before imagine as possible becomes real. By refusing to find fault, I stand firmly against patterns rooted in Anti-Jewish oppression and also against injustices which seeks to target any group or individual as "the problem." No one is the "problem." The problem is rooted in larger societal contexts of structural inequalities and injustices. The problem requires us to work together to create solutions. It's more than likely that the person or group we feel compelled to scapegoat is actually the perfect ally with whom to solve that problem. Who do you scapegoat in your life? Where do you see blaming behaviors go unchallenged in your personal relationships? Your organization? Society? What would shift for you if you decided to embrace a "blamelessness" policy? I look forward to reading your comments on our blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed. Feel free to share this article to broaden the conversation! | 
