To err is human, it's how we respond that matters

What drives behaviours and decisions in your business? We all expect our organisational strategies to establish our priorities and our values, setting the tone for what we do and how we do it.

But the old adage that “culture eats strategy for breakfast” still holds. The culture of an organisation informs, and is shaped by, how and what people within it communicate and deliver.

That’s never more true than in the influence culture has over how individuals, teams and businesses respond when something goes wrong.

Vicky Crichton leads the SLCC's policy and communications work

Of course, the human response is often to react with emotion. We might feel shame, disappointment, fear or concern, or be anxious to put things right or defensive about what happened.

When we speak to lawyers about complaints, we see those emotions clearly. The impact when something has gone wrong, or is believed to have gone wrong, is felt viscerally.

Those natural responses can drive action or they can cloud our judgment about what will solve the issue or help to put things right. This is where organisational culture can make a real difference.

Organisations can help their teams to recognise that to err is human, but the real value is in how we respond when something goes wrong.

When organisations have a culture of learning and improvement, it can help drive positive behaviours. That might be regular conversations about learning from complaints or things that have gone wrong, as well as things that have worked well. It might be senior team members sharing examples from their own experience.

What’s important is creating a safe and supportive space where everyone feels they can share and own issues. That takes work, but the impact on how individuals feel and act and how organisations manage challenges can be significant.

Conversely, organisations can actively contribute to the risk of things going wrong by avoiding difficult conversations or creating a culture of secrecy, blame or defensiveness. Time and again we see small issues which could have been easily solved snowball into something much bigger. A missed deadline might be a small or major issue, but it doesn’t become any less of a problem if it isn’t acknowledged or discussed. If it’s fixable, the best time to do that is now. Further delay is never going to help solve it.

If there’s something systemic causing issues, you’ll only see the pattern if individuals highlight when a problem occurs and reflect on the circumstances. Keeping logs and discussing learning from complaints can help uncover solutions that will help to improve the service you provide and avoid issues recurring.

Everything we do every day in our work shapes the culture of our workplace. How we talk about our work, and our challenges and approaches to dealing with them helps shape our response to those challenges, and responses of those around us.

Risk management helps businesses identify the things likely to affect their effectiveness or their delivery. It’s naturally much easier to look outside for risks that might impact our work than inside for things that could hold us back.

It’s even harder to grapple with how a positive culture is shaped, developed and nurtured. But it’s no less important. And unlike some other risks, it’s within our gift to change it.

Vicky Crichton is Director of Public Policy, Scottish Legal Complaints Commission