In my experience one of the most destructive atmospheres that you can create in a business is fear of consequence. Under such conditions the psychological attention direction of the individual is toward the avoidance of screwing up rather than toward doing something great. If a business penalises negative results more that it celebrates positive results it�s fairly obvious that avoiding negatives is a safer strategy than going after the positives. How is this fear instilled? - Through the informal communication in the organisation; the working environment, corridor conversations and the behaviour of your line manager.

I was recently working in a company where I visited the toilet and was greeted with a sign stating that an individual had left graffiti in that toilet, it was unacceptable and if the culprit is caught they will INSTANTLY DISMISSED! It was signed by the CEO. As I read it I felt like I was back a school, or like I was being told off. That business probably had 1,000 people working in that building. The sign was for the benefit of one person - how do the other 999 feel about being confronted with that threatening tone and BLOCK CAPITALS at least once a day? What is this communicating to them? Is threatening one person worth creating a negative environment for 999 people? Just a thought�