Which guideline is essential for conducting a proper incident post-mortem?

Conducting a proper incident post-mortem involves reviewing what went wrong during an incident with the goal of learning and improving future incident responses. A blameless review is essential because it fosters an atmosphere of psychological safety, encouraging all participants to share their insights and experiences without fear of repercussions. This approach emphasizes understanding the underlying factors that contributed to the incident rather than placing blame on individuals.

When participants feel secure in expressing their thoughts, it promotes collaboration and a comprehensive analysis of the incident, leading to actionable improvements in processes and systems. In contrast, focusing on assigning blame or involving complex jargon can breed defensiveness, inhibit open communication, and ultimately detract from the objective of learning from the experience. Additionally, excluding stakeholders limits the perspectives that can be valuable during the review, missing critical elements that could improve future responses.