In times of crisis, asking “why” something has happened is far less important than taking action. So when failure bursts onto the scene, asking, “What do we do?” is far superior to “Why did this happen?” Far too often, operations professionals opt for a find blame-first mindset.

It is not hard to understand the emotional appeal of looking for a throat to choke. For example, an unexpected issue, defect, or customer escalation has surfaced. Its existence now dictates that your team dedicate some time to addressing the matter. There are impacts to planned or dependent activities, predictability is upended, and resource reassignment or reallocation may be needed. In addition, you must answer questions from senior leaders, apologies to customers are likely required, and there may be financial or reputational (personally or organizationally) impacts to endure. Stress often accompanies problems and mistakes, and stress quickly triggers the hunt to find who or what is responsible for the disruption.

If someone’s heart stops or something adversely impacts the heart’s function, the immediate action is to get it beating again or restore it to a normal rhythm. First responders are not concerned with why it stopped or why it malfunctioned. They take action to minimize the damage and leave the “why’s” for later discovery by other medical professionals.

Operations are the heart of a business, so when a disruption occurs, the focus should be on restoring order to minimize the impact on the organization and, ultimately, the customer. A detailed root cause analysis or performance management response can wait. The typical accountability reaction of “Who is responsible?” must shift intentionally to a more impactful question of “What can I do to get the situation under control?”