Blame Culture Is Toxic“责备文化”贻害无穷

Picture this： Your team is racing against time1 and working weekends to submit a new client proposal. You finally manage to put all the documents together， and just in the nick of time， you press “send.” You take a deep breath and thank the team for their hard work. The proposal looks great and you’re confident that you’ll probably win it.

设想一下：你的团队牺牲了周末时间，只为争分夺秒完成一份新的客户提案。终于，你整理好所有文件，在最后一刻按下“发送”键。你深吸了一口气，感谢大家的辛勤付出。提案看起来很不错，你自信有把握赢得客户。

A week later， you get an email from the client： “We really liked your bid. We would’ve love to go ahead with your company， but we found a mismatch in your numbers and the supporting documents. We’re pressed for time， so we’ve decided to move forward with someone else. I’m sure we’ll be able to work together in the future.”

一周过后，你收到了客户的邮件：“我们非常喜欢这个提案，本打算与贵公司合作，但后来发现贵公司的数据与证明文件有一处不符。由于时间紧迫，就选择了其他公司。我相信今后我们还有机会合作。”

You’re upset， frustrated， and angry. You call your team in， give them an earful2 about not checking the package correctly， and storm out of the room.

你心烦意乱、沮丧愤怒，召集团队成员，训斥他们没有好好检查项目文件，然后愤然离席。

What kind of an impression did you leave？ Your team probably thinks you’re thankless and unkind. They put a lot of work into that proposal and may even feel like they hate you in the moment. Your relationship may be irreversibly damaged.

你给人留下了怎样的印象？大家可能觉得你不知感恩、不近人情。大伙儿也为这份提案付出了很多心血，在那一刻，甚至可能对你心生怨恨。你们的关系或许就此出现裂痕，无法挽回。

No matter how nice you think you are， every unkind word or angry tone that escapes your lips undoes five times the amount of good your kind words and actions may have done.

无论你认为自己多么和善，你当时脱口而出的一句恶语、发泄出的一分怒气会抵消你以往五倍的善言善行。

There are two big challenges to overcoming blame：

要克服责人之心，我们面临着两大挑战：

Humans are wired to blame.

责备乃人之天性。

We are all naturally wired to blame other people or circumstances when things go wrong. These propensities are partially psychological， driven by something called the fundamental attribution bias3. We tend to believe that what people do is a reflection of who they are， rather than considering there may be other factors （social or environmental） influencing their behavior.

一旦事情出错，我们自然而然地怪罪于他人或者环境。在一定程度上，这种倾向是由一种叫做“基本归因偏差”的心理因素所造成。我们通常认为一个人的所作所为反映了其本性，却忽视了影响人之行为的其他因素（社会因素或环境因素）。

This is why when major workplace disasters are reported in the news， “human error” is often the first， and sometimes only， explanation provided， ignoring the systemic factors that led to the failure. It also feels the most satisfying. If someone else is to blame for our problems， then they need to change—not us.

这就是为什么每次新闻报道重大工作事故时，“人为错误”往往是第一解释，有时甚至是唯一解释，完全忽略了导致事故的系统性因素。如此说法，往往最令人满意。倘若问题是他人造成的，那么他人需要改变，而非我们。

There is also a biological explanation for our inclination to blame. Recent brain imaging research out of Duke University shows that positive events are processed by the prefrontal cortex， which takes a while and tends to conclude that good things happen by fluke. Negative events， on the other hand， are processed by the amygdala， which controls our fight-or-flight response4. The amygdala usually concludes that bad things happen on purpose， and it comes to this conclusion lightning fast. So fast， in fact， that we don’t even notice we’re making an assumption; we just know that the person closest to the problem must have done it on purpose！

这种责备倾向在生物学上也找得到依据。杜克大学最近的大脑成像研究表明，前额叶皮层负责应对积极事件，反应一段时间后，倾向于判定好事都是出于侥幸。而控制战斗或逃跑反应的杏仁核则负责应对负面事件，通常立马得出结论，判定坏事是故意为之。事实上，这结论下得如此之快，我们甚至都意识不到自己只是在做假设，便一口咬定出事的人是故意为之！

We blame more than we think.

我们比自认为的更爱责备。

This leads to the second problem with blame—we don’t notice how often we do it. Even the best executives I work with confess that they initially thought my “don’t blame” message was important for their team members to hear， but not them. However， once they began tracking how often they blame other people or circumstances for problems， they were shocked at how frequently they caught themselves in the act.

这就引出了责备的第二个问题：我们意识不到自己多么受怨天尤人。即使是我合作过的最优秀的高管也承认，他们最初认为我提出的“不要责备”是讲给其团队成员听的，而非他们自己。可是，一旦他们开始记录自己多少次将问题怪罪于他人或者环境，就会对自己屡屡做出这种行为感到震惊。

This behavior unfortunately leads their teams down a negative spiral. Our brains interpret blame the same way they interpret a physical attack. When we’re blamed， our prefrontal cortices effectively shut down and direct all our energy to defending ourselves， which， ironically， sabotages our ability to solve the problem for which we are being blamed.

不幸的是，这样下去会使整个团队陷入恶性循环。我们的大脑应对责备就跟应对身体受到攻击一样。受到责备时，前额叶皮层会及时关闭，将所有精力投入自卫，讽刺的是，这又恰恰削弱了我们解决受指责之问题的能力。

Blame also kills healthy， accountable behaviors. Nobody will take accountability for5 problems if they think they’ll be punished for doing so. Furthermore， learning and problem solving go out the window6 in workplaces that tolerate blame. Instead of learning from mistakes， blamed employees tend to hide their mistakes.

责备也会扼杀健康、负责任的行为。早知道要受到惩罚，就没人会愿意主动担责。此外，在一个动不动就兴师问罪的工作环境里，人也会对学习懈怠起来，不去积极解决问题。受责骂的员工往往不会吸取教训，反而会掩盖错误。

So what can we do？

那么，我们能做些什么？

Eliminate blame culture on your team.