Principlev1
Pre-commit to blameless investigation protocols that frame
Pre-commit to blameless investigation protocols that frame incidents as 'what happened?' rather than 'who failed?' to prevent defensive filtering during root cause analysis.
Why This Is a Principle
Derives from Cognitive Dissonance Drives Information Avoidance (cognitive dissonance drives information avoidance) and Belief Perseverance Against Contradictory Evidence (belief maintenance despite contradictory evidence). The principle recognizes that blame activates need-to-be-right, which activates defensive filtering, preventing accurate observation. Edmondson's psychological safety research grounds this—teams that report more errors perform better.