Avoiding ‘blame’

Rand Corp Study of cost estimates in new energy plants

Average overrun was 153%

Managers blamed factors outside control: weather, changes in gov regs, etc.

74% of factors were inside control

Russo, Schoemaker, Decision Traps, 1989, pg 173

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Of course, while assigning blame to others is a great way to obviate randomness, it runs counter to other internal processes when applied to self. Of course, the push to ascribe randomness where it doesn’t exist is equally destructive to the learning pro