Evaluating the SMS to Place Blame
During an evaluation, our primary question is, "What works and what doesn't?"
This is important. Do not conduct a SMS evaluation just to determine who is at fault. In other words, don't evaluate to find out who is mad, bad, evil, lazy, crazy, stupid, or otherwise flawed. Do not make these kind of value judgments that attack a person or group.
What is the real purpose of the evaluation?
If the purpose of an evaluation is to "fix the system," then playing the "blame game" is not effective precisely because it does not achieve the desired purpose or goal of the process. In fact, the evaluation may be counter-productive. Why is that? Because when the purpose of an evaluation process has been achieved, it stops!
If we evaluate to place blame, we'll stop the process once blame has been determined. As a result, we'll never get past the blame to evaluate the system because we believe the goal has been achieved. We won't focus on the real root causes of the problem.
We can't stress this enough. Fix the system, not the blame.
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
4-3. If the purpose of an evaluation is to "place blame," what happens when that purpose has been achieved?
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