A case for the Designated Scapegoat

Have you ever considered why it is that when we consider systems we assign it attributes such as he or she or "misbehaving" or otherwise letting us down? I have. Why you ask.... darned if I know, I have a lot of random things float through my head and some of them are actually are entertaining. Hopefully this is one of those.

It seems that we as humans have a fundamental psychological need to explain things. So in order to explain them we put attributes either internal or external to explain why things happen. Maybe it is because from the age of "really small" we ask why? (and those of us who have children know the number of times we answer that question becomes numbing.) In psychology this is referred to Attribution Theory.

External attribution is things like "the devil possessed the machine and crashed it" or the ever popular "the data center is on a burial ground of some kind and it causes the servers to crash". It may not be true, but it helps us to deal. Or certainly to laugh at our misfortune.

Internal attribution is, in essence, blaming yourself. The easy example is things like "I am a sinner, please forgive me." We see this a little less in technology though it does pop up as well with the occasional person who perpetually places blame on themselves.

This fundamental psychological need is why I am suggesting the role of Designated Scapegoat on all projects. If a designated scapegoat is assigned at the beginning of any project we can simply move on to the fixing of problems since don't have to waste time in meetings deciding who or what is at fault. All of the posturing, political planning, set up, stonewalling, denial etc can cease and we can simply move forward. All blame can preemptively be assigned to the Designated Scapegoat and productive work can begin immediately. My experience with this role suggests that your Designated Scapegoat should be someone who is generally a good natured, understanding and who everyone knows in their hearts is beyond reproach.

Imagine how instead of a two hour meeting where people discuss why it is not their problem you start the meeting off with "Gee Chris, that was a mess up, I can't believe that you crashed the servers across the globe all at the same time." Chris then responds "Yeah, you know in Project Manager school we learned that the best way to crash a system is to push the button really hard, right in the middle." Then blame and attribution discussions are done and conversation can move to actual observed behaviors and problem resolution. What a time saver!!

So as a productivity aid for your next project assign a Designated Scapegoat up front, save yourself from Attribution Theory and all those unnecessary meetings. Focus on fixing problems, root cause analysis and long term fixes. Jump right past the blame game with this easy step.