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Range Chicken
Waiting for a colleague to take the fall
Launching a rocket successfully requires many complex systems to work perfectly
along with close cooperation from all team members. In the early days, things
often did not go well. As the countdown approached zero, a room full of launch
control officers each monitored the systems they are responsible for. Several
may get a signal, perhaps a red light visible only to them, indicating their
system was faulty, several seconds before the launch. But why bother to stop the
countdown and take responsibility for delaying the launch when you can simply
wait for a red light to go on for someone else in the room? Let the other guy
speak up and take the blame for failing to launch. Imagine the tension in the room
as more and more launch control officers each realize their system has failed,
no one has yet halted the launch, and the ill-fated launch will occur in a few
seconds if no one is wiling to accept responsibility now.
It might go something like this on a computing system upgrade project: The
project completion date is only a few weeks off. The workstation installation
team is several weeks behind schedule. They promptly announced their concerns to
the project manager and are receiving lots of attention and blame. Although the
network installation team is a also few weeks behind schedule they have hidden
their problems from the project manager. They are depending on the late
workstations to delay the project long enough to hide their own lateness. But
now there has been a breakthrough, the workstation problems have been solved and
they will be done on time. The networking team problems are now revealed and
become the critical path, time has been lost because they hid their problems,
and they will now cause the project to miss its schedule.
Failing to highlight flaws in the team's plan or performance is common
practice in the many bureaucracies we work in today. Why rock the boat when
someone else eventually will? The answer is simple once you decide to
always
do your best.
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Fear, Sadness, Anger, Joy, Surprise, Disgust, Contempt,
Anger, Envy, Jealousy, Fright, Anxiety, Guilt, Shame, Relief, Hope, Sadness, Depression, Happiness,
Pride, Love, Gratitude, Compassion, Aesthetic Experience,
Joy, Distress, Happy-for, Sorry-for, Resentment, Gloating, Pride, Shame, Admiration, Reproach,
Love, Hate, Hope, Fear, Satisfaction, Relief, Fears-confirmed, Disappointment, Gratification,
Gratitude, Anger, Remorse,
power, dominance, stature, relationships |
