Best Practices for a Blameless Post-mortem
Make sure everyone provides constructive criticism rather than casting blame.
Review notes and findings from post-mortem meetings to ensure they are producing results that drive process improvements.
Visibly praise or reward participants for following the blameless format.
Encourage people to be honest and accept that failure will always occur.
Build a timeline of the project or incident, and use this format to gather and share information.
Encourage the use of “I” statements rather than “you” statements. Paula Cizek, Chief Research Officer at nobl.io, an organizational design firm, suggests, “If people do start falling into the habit of blaming others, then the facilitator can ask them to use ‘I’ as opposed to ‘you’ statements and to be specific about the behavior. For example, they should say, ‘I feel frustrated that we received the contract late,’ instead of, ‘Your team never turns things in on time.’”
The people upstairs need to support a blameless culture, so get buy-in from the C-suite.
Collaborate with other teams and your colleagues to promote and spread the benefits of running a blameless post-mortem.
Studies show that helpful teams are better at resolving issues, so support those you work with — collaboration leads to improvement.
If someone feels like they are receiving blame, get back on track by restating the goal of blamelessness. Explain the intention behind a comment and how that compares to its delivery. This tactic can help reestablish shared purpose and respect.
Consider diverse perspectives. Team members will have different backgrounds, experiences, and work styles. These differences are beneficial for providing unique views of the causes and effects of issues. They may see or value things that you don’t.
Review the reasons that a reasonable, rational, and decent person would take a particular course of action in a particular situation. Try to see what they saw and feel what they felt.
A meeting leader should model behaviors they want others to exhibit. For example, if a leader’s actions contributed to a success or issue, they should participate in the discussion.
If the meeting veers into blaming or finger-pointing, the meeting leader should steer the meeting back toward blamelessness. If that doesn’t work, they should consider pausing or ending the meeting, or asking problematic attendees to leave the room.
https://www.smartsheet.com/content/blameless-postmortem-guide
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