[geeks] Bad monster. No donut.

[velociraptor]

 11/12/06, Bill Bradford <mrbill at mrbill.net> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 12, 2006 at 03:36:33PM -0500, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> > because the people in India who needed
> > to act on that had traditionally Indian mores, and felt it was beneath
> > them to do anything at the request of a woman.  So they'd refuse to do
> > it, and then when the next meeting came up, they'd lie and say they'd
> > done it, and it must be her fault that she didn't have it.
>
> That's interesting, where I work we don't have that problem at *all* and
> have a number of female (American and British) managers over here in charge
> of development teams "Over There".

I never had that problem either, but then, I recognized it was about
the hierarchy rather than culture, per se.  If you can show the
individual you're having problems with that you outrank them and have
no issues going over their head to make them look bad, all that push
back will go away.

You also have to be very, very careful to get them to repeat back what
they think they have committed to/understand they are to do.  Many
will say, "Yes" to the question, "Do you understand?" even if they
don't.  Because in the hierarchy someone of lower status doesn't ask
questions of someone of higher status.

These things happen in many other cultures, not just Indian culture.

=Nadine=