When a new technology or major change is deployed in your IT environment and something doesn’t go as planned, what’s one of the first questions management asks?
Is it, “Who did it?”
Or…
“What happened, and what can we learn from it?”
The answer to that question says a lot about your IT culture.
It’s never easy to admit that someone on your team made a mistake.
But the way you respond in that moment sets the tone for everything that follows.
Mistakes are inevitable—even with detailed planning and thorough testing. And in complex IT environments, you simply can’t anticipate everything that will happen in production.
What matters most isn’t whether mistakes happen. It’s how you respond in that moment as their leader.
In this episode, we’ll explore how to move beyond blame and build a culture of trust, accountability, and ownership.
Moving Beyond Blame to Create Accountability and Trust
I recall a period in my career where one of the first questions being asked after a production deployment didn’t go as planned was, “Who did it?” instead of “What happened?”
At the time, our organization worked closely with several subcontractors. Whenever something went wrong, the first assumption was often that the subcontractors were responsible.
But something about that didn’t sit right with me.
Because what I learned was that they had limited access to the production environment.
As the IT Vendor Management Program Manager, one of my responsibilities was building strong partnerships with our vendors and helping resolve issues that impacted those relationships.
I brought the concern to the Director over one of the IT teams during a meeting. It wasn’t about proving someone wrong. I genuinely wanted to understand what was happening.
I asked, “How could the subcontractors be responsible if they have limited access to production?” He paused, acknowledged the question, and then turned to his team and asked them the very same thing.
What we discovered surprised all of us.
The problem wasn’t the subcontractors and it wasn’t the internal IT team.
It was that neither team had a shared understanding of their roles and responsibilities for production deployments.
Once we identified that, the conversation changed from “Who’s responsible?” to “How do we improve the process?”
It took several months to work through but once everyone understood their role, the finger-pointing stopped.
Together, both teams clarified responsibilities, improved communication, and developed a much better understanding of what each team needed from the other.
Over time, we moved from a culture of blame to one of shared ownership. Instead of pointing fingers, both teams became focused on solving the problem together.
I’ve seen similar situations many times throughout my career. Sometimes they’re between IT organizations, between business and IT, and even within the same team.
When something goes wrong, it’s easy to place blame. It takes strong leadership to become curious enough to ask what really happened.
And moments like these are where leadership matters most. They’re opportunities to model the behaviors you want your team to display during times of pressure.
When you help people move beyond blame and toward collaboration, you’ll begin to build the kind of culture where trust grows, accountability becomes the norm, and people work together to solve problems instead of protecting themselves.
That’s where the most innovative solutions are often found because people feel safe enough to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and think differently.
Here are 5 ways to create a culture of trust, accountability, and ownership:
1. Focus on the problem, not the person.
Separate “What happened?” from “Who made the mistake?”
When people know the goal is to understand the problem rather than assign blame, they’re much more willing to share what really happened.
2. Make it safe to admit mistakes.
If people fear punishment, they’ll hide information. If they feel safe, problems surface sooner—before they become much bigger issues.
Psychological safety doesn’t remove accountability—it creates the conditions for accountability to flourish.
3. Ask open-ended questions.
Instead of asking,
“Why did you do that?” ask, “Would you walk me through your thought process?”
Curiosity almost always leads to better conversations than judgment.
It also helps people reflect on their own decisions and often uncover improvements they hadn’t considered.
4. Learn before you fix the problem.
Before rushing to solutions, pause long enough to understand what actually happened.
Ask:
- What process failed?
- What assumptions were made?
- Where was communication unclear?
- What needs to change moving forward?
The best long-term solutions come from understanding the root cause, not simply treating the symptom.
5. Turn every mistake into a learning opportunity.
Ask your team, “What can we do differently next time?”
That simple question shifts the conversation from blame to continuous improvement.
One of the things I appreciated most about the teams I managed was that people weren’t afraid to tell me when something had gone wrong.
That didn’t happen by accident.
It happened because they knew we were going to solve the problem together instead of looking for someone to blame.
When people know they won’t be blamed, they’re far more likely to raise issues early, before they become much bigger problems.
That’s one of the greatest gifts you can give your team.
You can create this type of culture by modeling vulnerability yourself. Take responsibility when you and your team make mistakes and take ownership as their leader.
Be curious before making assumptions and encourage your team to do the same.
When mistakes happen—and they will—treat them as opportunities to learn, improve, and strengthen the way your team works together.
Over time, you’ll find that accountability becomes something your team embraces rather than something you have to enforce.
And that’s when a culture of ownership truly begins to take root.
Stay empowered and lead assertively!