Ben Dattner > Quotes

“Founder Scott Cook believes that some of the company’s best ideas have come from learning from mistakes or from initiatives that didn’t live up to their potential.”
― Ben Dattner, Credit and Blame at Work: How Better Assessment Can Improve Individual, Team and Organizational Success

“Eisenhower had scribbled the note the evening before so that he would have prepared remarks if the invasion failed; it indicated he was ready to take personal responsibility for the nightmare scenario:   Our landings have failed and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.1”
― Ben Dattner, Credit and Blame at Work: How Better Assessment Can Improve Individual, Team and Organizational Success

“Ultimately, successful individuals focus less on the relative apportionment of blame and instead focus on fixing things in order to reduce the overall level of blame in their lives and careers.”
― Ben Dattner, Credit and Blame at Work: How Better Assessment Can Improve Individual, Team and Organizational Success

“Edgar Schein has said, learning only occurs when “survival anxiety” becomes greater than “learning anxiety.”
― Ben Dattner, Credit and Blame at Work: How Better Assessment Can Improve Individual, Team and Organizational Success

“Von Braun was sending a clear message that he would credit people for admitting mistakes instead of concealing the truth. With this powerful symbolic gesture, he helped create a culture of openness about mistakes rather than one of politics and self-protection, thereby also building a culture of continuous learning.”
― Ben Dattner, Credit and Blame at Work: How Better Assessment Can Improve Individual, Team and Organizational Success

“Avoid candidates who evaluate themselves in a self-serving, black-and-white manner, or who have left a trail of “blameful” wreckage in their wake at past jobs.”
― Ben Dattner, Credit and Blame at Work: How Better Assessment Can Improve Individual, Team and Organizational Success

“attribution theory”
― Ben Dattner, Credit and Blame at Work: How Better Assessment Can Improve Individual, Team and Organizational Success