Slow Down Processing When Blaming Others

If blaming others for damage or inconvenience to your customers, present explanations in ways which slow down the processing by those receiving it. Text is better than video.
     Researchers at University of Washington, University of Illinois, and DePaul University looked at the case of a business publically announcing an error. Some of the study participants received the statement in text format, while the others received it as a video in the style of YouTube. Half the people in each group read or saw a statement, “We are fully responsible for this error because we relied on… advice….” The other half of people in each group instead got the statement, “We are not responsible for this error because we relied on…advice….”
     When the information was presented in a text format, there were no significant differences in rated trustworthiness of the business leadership, whether or not the leadership took responsibility. On the other hand, in the video format, the trustworthiness rating was about 54% higher when the leadership took responsibility than when not.
     Video gets a message out quickly and captures attention better than does text. But if you’re wanting consumers to realize an error was beyond your control because of the actions of others, you’re probably better off with a text press release.
     Better yet is to fix the problem instead of fixing the blame.
     Holding people responsible is different from fixing blame. Estimates by psychologists at New York University and University of Tulsa suggest that about 70% of retail employees will do less well in a store like yours if you put more emphasis on fixing the blame for the problem than on fixing the problem which caused the setback.
     Here are patterns commonly set off by blaming retail employees for mistakes:

• Denies that failure has occurred or denies any responsibility for it. The employee then begins distorting everyday business occurrences so as to avoid confronting problems. 
• Accepts some responsibility, but deflects most of the responsibility to other people or to unforeseeable circumstances. The employee then is too quick to sense only the criticism when given constructive advice. 
• Announces their responsibility in order to brag about the corrective actions they’ve taken. The employee then aims to impress managers excessively, sabotaging teamwork. 
• Wallows in self-blame out of proportion to their actual responsibility. The employee then overreacts to even minor mistakes, withdraws from necessary risk-taking, and prematurely labels setbacks as failure. 

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Fix the Problem, Not the Blame