One thing that President Harry Truman is best remembered for is a plaque he had made for his desk indicating "The Buck Stops Here". He had seen such a sign on a tour and asked if they could make one for him, The slogan emphasizes the opposite of "pass the buck". The first says that final responsibility resides with them. The second is avoidance of all responsibility. We have probably all known people who avoided responsibility. If we are fortunate, we have also known people who accepted final responsibility. Alas, those who avoid appear to be greater in number than those who accept.
But, what is responsibility? Being responsible means you accept the consequences of results of actions. You apologize and act to prevent future occurrence of the event. If possible, you correct and amend effects such that any bad outcomes are lessened. There may be repercussions -- you might be fired, or not re-elected, or publicly (or privately) rebuked. Taking responsibility means not avoiding repercussions.
There were surely many things that President Truman had no direct knowledge of, made no direct decisions about, and had no known way of affecting outcomes. Why would he be responsible for such events? Responsibility includes indirect responsibility. Indirect responsibility implies delegation and this is the primary reason for Truman's plaque. As President, he had people delegated and those people had other people delegated and so on -- but delegation does not eliminate responsibility. All of their actions (or lack thereof), and that of those reporting back to your delegates, and so on are the same as a "virtual" you.
But how about fault and blame? Fault is the cause of the problem. It may involve an action or the lack of a needed action. It may involve an "act of nature" (earthquake, hurricane, flood, ...) It may have been something deliberate, accidental, or spontaneous (without direct initiation). The initial known point of fault may have one, or many, other problems which have cascaded into the visible fault. The fault observed may not be the place that needs to be changed to prevent (or lessen the likelihood) of future faults.
Blame is an action that is an expression of emotion. It may be based on anger, fear, frustration, shame or something else. Fault is the action but blame is the emotional reaction. Blame is not the same as discovering problems or discovering the person, or group, responsible for problems. Blame is often directed at those we perceive as causing a problem -- those with direct responsibility. But those we blame are not always those who truly caused the problem. The emotionally charged action makes clear analysis difficult. Blame is a destructive action. Changing things such that a fault does not occur again is a constructive action.
Note that this blog is focused on problems -- negative results. Responsibility also exists for positive results and is sometimes recognized -- but, perhaps, not often enough. The positive side of faults are accomplishments. Appreciation is the positive side of blame.
