Learn from the mistakes of others

I suspect that a lot of the failure avoidance comes from people protecting/pursuing their reputations, and thus careers. Currently, admitting your failure just advertises it.

It's also a culture thing. I work for Large Multinational tech company^TM and one thing that frustrates me a lot is some of the ways that the foreigners I deal with work.

Some people won't ask you questions if they don't know things, because they fear they are showing their ignorance. Despite the fact that it takes about 10 times as less time to ask someone who knows than to work it out yourself.

Some people are very overprotective of their code or the team they manage because they think you're out to steal their job. Well, I'm definitely not, because I know exactly when my job ends (September). Yet, they're still overprotective. We work for the same damn company, dammit!

Some people won't give an honest report of the status of their task... because they might be running late, and won't hit the deadline. Frankly, if I'm going to run late, I say so, just so the manager's expectations aren't thrown out of whack too late to replan.

As an Aussie, I don't care too much about saving face. I know I work well, and sometimes circumstances get beyond control. I know I will get rewarded for good work, because it's happened before, and the management in Australia is fair, and work in a meritocracy. (Well, I may not get any more rewards in my current job, but hey).

But in certain cultures (Asian, Indian, less so in the US, but it happens) there's so much selfishness in careers that you have to protect your own arse/save face (arse about face?) all the time, that if the project fails, instead of investigate the root cause, it's all about making sure you don't get blamed.

I have a friend in Malaysia who after 5 years of complaining to me on an almost daily basis about how she was mistreated in her job for Another LMTC^TM she finally quit and went to a new company. Immediately she didn't like it, because they took a while to get her a new computer... and then she was laid with a task, expected to complete it in a week or two with no background knowledge. I said she should ask the team members to help her... and she said their attitude was that she was trying to infiltrate their little clique and they tried to block her out and not give her any information... AND THESE ARE PEOPLE ON THE SAME DAMN PROJECT!

It seems crazy to me, in this industry, that people put individual performance over teamwork, because without teamwork a project will fail. And if the management were doing things fairly, the process will get blamed instead of individuals. But it sounds like that sort of behaviour doesn't exist in those cultures.

In her old company, their idea of team building was compulsory socialising with your workmates - going to bars after work, going away for a weekend holiday (only subsidised by the company, not fully paid for) and stuff like that. Team building isn't just getting to know your team mates, or even being friends with them. It's about respecting their knowledge, skills and abilities, and using these as a team to the best of everyone's abilities. Everyone has something to contribute, and hopefully it can be spread across the team. You'd think in a workplace situation, there wouldn't be any really really thick people/dead wood, because if they're smart enough to have the resume & pass the interview to get the job, surely they know at least a little about programming?

I think I've lost the thread of my comment as I've gone off on a rant.
And I should reboot the computer so I can start my work for the day.

Seeya!