How the CYA Culture Turns into Finger-Pointing and Blaming

The following is adapted from Unbreak the System by Josh Rovner.

In this version of politics, ideas, initiatives, or reports take a long time to get approved and have to go through multiple committees and approvals before they are implemented. No one wants to be guilty of making a mistake.

People know that making a mistake is not tolerated and will be met with harsh consequences. Those consequences could be as extreme as being fired.

But it’s also possible that won’t happen, and instead, the people who make mistakes will just be belittled or discredited in some way.

That’s also very painful — almost more painful than being fired, in some cases, because those people then need to show up and face their belittlers every day. At a minimum, that consequence is painful enough to make people avoid it, which is why they work as hard as they can to cover themselves.

While you may feel that a true consensus has been achieved coming out of a committee, that may not be the case. True consensus (which is genuine agreement on a difficult decision) is not the same as CYA consensus.

There is a parallel here to Chris Voss’s great book on negotiating called Never Split the Difference. Voss explains that there is such a thing as a “counterfeit yes.”

A counterfeit yes occurs when someone outwardly agrees with you just to shut you up and get out of the interaction without having a conflict. They know they can’t solve the conflict because you are unwilling to listen and negotiate.

Often in organizations that have CYA culture, what seems like true consensus is actually CYA consensus, similar to a counterfeit yes. If things go wrong, then CYA consensus turns into finger-pointing and blaming other people or groups.

It becomes a hidden quest to make sure you or your department has its ass covered and doesn’t “get egg on its face.” Anyone or any department that does take the blame will have their reputation, credibility, and influence suffer.

Of course, this sounds ridiculous and horrible. It is obviously a very inefficient and ineffective way to operate.

But it happens all the time.

It’s probably happening in your company.

CYA culture causes people to do things solely based on fear, which is not ideal. Yes, it’s true that sometimes fear can be a good thing and help you focus.

But not in this case, because the fear is artificially created and expanded beyond what is rational and appropriate for the situation.

There has been a lot of research showing that people don’t make the best decisions when they are unnecessarily afraid.

In order to make the best decisions for the most complex circumstances, we need our rational brains, which don’t stay in the driver’s seat when we’re operating from fear.

Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Making decisions based on CYA culture is not going to solve the company’s problems.

The CYA culture needs to be dealt with and removed in order for the company to operate with its rational brain, turn performance around, and advance to greatness.

To learn more about diagnosing and curing critical flaws in your company, you can find Unbreak the System on Amazon.

JOSH ROVNER has more than twenty years of experience as a leader and consultant, working with all levels of small to large corporations to grow their revenues and improve their performance. Josh leads change and transforms businesses by communicating clearly about complex subjects, designing effective processes, and developing and coaching people. Josh received his bachelor of science in communications, summa cum laude, from Boston University, and his master of management in hospitality from Cornell University. He lives in Dallas, Texas.