It’s weekly meeting time. You have a group together. You’re reviewing what’s working, and everyone’s cool. You’re reviewing what’s not working, and you let this doozy out:

“It’s nobody’s fault.”

Of course it’s someone’s fault. It’s ultimately your fault, since you’re ostensibly in charge, right?

It’s completely transparent that you’re trying to walk that line of serving up criticism without actually calling out any individual or sub-group. As a result, nothing is accomplished or even actually said here. Take some of that accountability, and consider alternatives with the all-inclusive “we”:

• “We really had a miss on that one.”
• “Unfortunately that didn’t work. What can we do differently there?”
• “It was worth trying, but we should approach this another way next time.”

These aren’t even all THAT great, but they’re significantly better than, “It’s nobody’s fault.”