All failure is systems failure
It is common to blame or praise a person's mistakes on their character. It is more useful for all involved to point out and redesign the systems that enabled that state.[1]
These techniques and behaviours tend to exacerbate problems:
- Accusations
- Shaming
Instead, these approaches have better long term results
- Design thinking
Counterpoints
Some may argue that by not blaming the individual they are "getting away" with bad habits.
Some also point out that Atomic Habits attributes a person's habits to a person's beliefs. Thus the initial point that a mistake being part of a person's character seems to hold true.
This philosophy has a strong resemblance to Stoicism.
A claim I thought about while reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, and also The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman - that if you use an object and fail, it is likely the fault of the designer, not you. ↩︎