Cleveland Browns
“You fail all of the time. But you aren’t a failure until you start blaming someone else.”– Bum Phillips, Houston Texans
This article is not going to be about football. This entry is an anecdote about accountability.So, I’ll give you some quick info that you need to know to make my point. First, the Browns are currently winless this season (0 – 10). What’s worse is that they have only won 4 games in their last 42 going back to previous seasons.
Who’s to blame?
But wait… There’s more bad news for Browns fans. This isn’t likely to change soon. Because while the team, trainers, coaches, and everyone associated with the play on the field is surely trying to do all they can to win games, the problems on the field aren’t the problems. They are puzzles to solve that are results of bigger problems.
As a recent example, the Browns executed a trade that was designed to help their team (and DAMN do they need it). But the trade failed. Not because the other team (The Bengals) rejected the deal. Not because a player changed his mind. But because someone in the Browns organization waited until the last few minutes until the trade deadline to send the trade confirmation email, neglected to verify it’s receipt by the other team, and failed to copy the NFL to inform them (all standard operating procedures). Trade: Rejected.
NOW who’s to blame?
The answer: No one.
In order for there to be blame, someone has to be at fault. And what this, and organizations like this need isn’t blame. It’s responsibility.
Blame is fault. Responsibility is ownership.
My heart aches for the people on the field trying to win games (and the fans) because the cards are stacked against them. They are in an organization that seems to have a systemic problem showing up as a culture of low-performance. And you can’t have a high-performing team in a low-performing organizational culture, regardless of talent or heart.
Granted that I wasn’t in the Browns business offices when all of this happened. But when an organization with THAT much on the line and with results as miserable as they are on the field fails to get a deal done because someone forgot to ensure that an email was received in the 11th hour and 57th minute, I’m willing to extrapolate that the organization has a culture of “suck” and is lacking in responsibility.
Just as any armchair quarterback can coach the team from his living room, I could spout off about what has gone wrong in the Browns organization. Whatever the case this is an EPIC opportunity for this organization to address the deeper issues. (Perhaps they need a coach!)
Just like a losing football record, if a business is having poor results in ANY area; employee relations/retention, client acquisition, work/life balance, profitability, etc., those aren’t the problems in the organization. Those are the results of the problems. And these are fantastic opportunities to look deeper into these issues to see what the real problems are.
If someone in the organization, typically someone at the top, is willing to take full responsibility (ownership) for what has happened and what they need to do in order to change, and in doing so releasing the blame, only then will the organization be able to move forward and win. Until there is ownership, there is no way to affect anything.
Take a look at your current business and/or your personal life circumstances. EVERYTHING in those scenes are results. Of what are they results? Where are you seeing an undesirable result and how far back and deep does the real cause go? What do you need to do to release the blame and take full responsibility and ownership for future? Share your ideas and suggestions on Facebook! And for inspirational messages (or random goofy stuff) follow me on Twitter, and get more “behind the scenes” stuff on Instagram.
Go from status quo to Status Flow.
