"...Propose to an Englishman any principle, or any instrument, however admirable, and you will observe that the whole effort of the English mind is directed to finding a difficulty, a defect, or an impossibility in it. If you speak to him of a machine for peeling a potato, he will pronounce it impossible; if you peel a potato with it before his eyes, he will declare it useless, because it will not slice a pineapple.... Charles Babbage, 1852
"As early as 1852, Charles Babbage could see symptoms of decay and infer from them a vision of future performance. In so doing he provides a perfect description of the blaming style of communication, which emerges in 'decaying' organizations--be they nations or software engineering organizations. What is a "blaming style of communication," and why is it important in systems development?...
"Achieving Congruence
"When Deming said, "Drive fear out of the workplace," we think he was talking about changing the blaming organization to the congruent organization. This kind of change is made by one person at a time--hopefully starting at the top--and one step at a time. The steps can be broken down into six 'A's', as follows: Awareness, Acceptance, Authorship, Articulation, Application, Activism. Let's look at how each of these steps takes place in the context of an individual trying to change a blaming organization.
"...Activism says, "Now that I can make a difference in myself and my most familiar world, I'm going to help spread this throughout the organization." Activism is applied leadership, starting at the point at which you have enough competence at being congruent to reach out and be proactive--anticipating, initiating, instigating--but not inflicting. You cannot operate from an incongruent position and force other people to be congruent..."
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