I was invited to participate in writing the 77 Sins of Project Management. I had fun looking over the juicy list of sins. It was hard but I choose Blaming, Rigidity and Satisficing. Why? I had some great project examples and suggestions for project improvement. My thoughts:

Blaming is an aggressive and often acrimonious assignment of blame for project failure.

During project execution blaming is a reflexive, speed of light response. It is part of our human nature. We are rational. We want answers. The sound byte nature of guilt assignment is beguiling. Quick and witty assessments resonate with us. The issue is decided; maybe only in our mind. So we blame, dump on others and move on to the other 50 action items that we need to accomplish . . . before noon. But is blame that simple. No.

Many of the 77 Sins of Project Management are organizational or cultural issues. This one is personal. The following solutions will improve project practices and so they look like they are fact based. Actually the solutions are about controlling your emotions. If you don’t control your emotions, when you feel under attack, you will attempt to blame back.

Basic marriage counseling principle is changing yourself before you request change from others. What does dysfunctional communication have to do with project management? Lots!

Dysfunction 1: Recognize when we blame. This doesn’t need to be a weekend offsite retreat event. It is a quick process of self-evaluation. Watch for when your emotions are engaged. There might be a bit of judgment, criticism. Stop and picture the situation from the others perspective or a longer time frame.

Dysfunction 2: Recognize when we are at fault. Great project managers are authentic and genuine. Have a sense of humor and humility if you have publicly expressed an erroneous or uninformed decision. Model humility and fess up to the thought process that got you here.

Dysfunction 3: Recognize a team opportunity for improvement. If you model open and honest communication, you can request that the team does the same. Paybacks in loyalty are immense.

Reprinted [adapted] with permission from The 77 Deadly Sins of Project Management, © 2009 by Management Concepts, Inc. All rights reserved. www.managementconcepts.com