Normal People Look for Causality

From the book Be Unreasonable by Paul Lemberg:

Freedom comes from responsibility. Be completely responsible for your actions and your results. Normal people look for causality, something or someone to blame for the way things turned out. Unreasonably lay claim to every miracle or debacle within your sphere of influence; make them all yours, for that’s the only way to exert dominon over them and gain freedom. Being unreasonable is about being totally responsible for everything around you and completely irresponsible about transgressing cultural norms.

I quote this passage in particular because the sentence “normal people look for causality, something or someone to blame for the way things turned out” stood out for me. I work in a rather typical corporate environment, one in which people often ask “why did this Outcome Xyz happen?” when something wrong happens, not so much looking for a solution, but someone or something to pin the blame on.

I am guilty of doing this too, but always seek to propose a solution or two if sufficiently within my area of expertise. Sure, Department Abc may have caused the negative outcome, but then what? Is it really enough to say they caused it?

I believe it’s always useful to the organisation and to the all parties to give a possible solution, even if it may not be the optimal or best solution. Apart from being a possible solution to the problem, it will help to alleviate some of the tension inherent in such a situation.