My dad once told me a story of a bottling plant. This plant sold a popular soft drink that was famous in those days and dad had the good fortune of visiting it on an official assignment. 

One day the unit was unable to produce as many bottles as it did and the Manager was blamed for it. All felt, he lacked the skills of handling an emergency. 

The bottles pass through a lot of processes and there was a breakdown at the point where emulsifiers and additives were mixed in the water, the drink was made of. 

It took a while for the manager to understand where the breakdown had taken place and he felt that the operator who was in charge of that process should have known it instantly and brought to his notice. He fired the operator, who said that unless the bottles move into the next process he wouldn't know so he blamed the next person in line. 

Now the Manager understood that there was no point in discussing and got the problem fixed. 

My dad asked, ....who do you think was to be blamed. I thought for a while and said, the entire team....it's not an individual failure. My dad smiled and said, severally and collectively, they are responsible. Individually because if each individual does his job to the best of his ability and is alert, he can tap a loophole and fix it so that the rest of the processes are smooth. Collectively because we are all responsible for a particular job and most of the time we pass on the failure to others instead of understanding how if we had owned the job we would have helped others and grown together. We should own the entire job and not just a process assigned to us...

He told me that the Manager was a learned old man, he called a casual meeting of his workers over a cup of coffee. And while at it, he gave the example of his hand....each finger does a specific job and the hand works efficiently only then....also if the hand refuses to do anything, the fingers being good also doesn't help. All the workers clapped for him and promised to do a better job next time. 

We come across many such situations in real life where we hold a person irresponsible without understanding the situation or people he is been through. We pass on the buck without analysing ourselves.

When you look at a job as teamwork and work without complaining, complement each other so that we fill in that portion of us which is lacking and achieve our targets collectively then we will always win and find fulfilment. But if we only concentrate on us, we may not do so well as a team. 

This lesson has stayed with me ever since. I see a lot like what happened in the factory happen at the work place, but very few managers do what the old gentleman did, very few really understand someone's situation, compliment him and help him to better himself and the organization as a whole. It is because of such a few individuals that we have gained the glory we have today.