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Very well said, Kishore! Yes, it is largely cultural, especially behaviours 1 and 3.

Re Behaviour 2 ("I don't know"), I think this could be more of an organizational environment issue. If one were to create a truly free and learning environment, I think much of this behaviour would go away. Of course, you would still probably find that people would not like to draw attention to themselves by standing up and declaring that they do not know; they would probably wait to be asked before coming up with an admission of inadequate knowledge. This is where the organization environment would need to be further strengthened.

Having said that, I would also add that this culture is not only unique to India but to all Easten (Oriental)  cultures (especially behaviour No 1). Saving face is very important in all these cultures - hence, if somebody does'nt say "No" to your face, it is because he does not want you to lose face. A good way to get around this is to encourage your people to come up to you later, in private, and tell you what they feel to be the truth. May not always work, but worth a try!

In fact, I find that Indians tend to have a mix of Eastern cultures and Western attitudes. China, Thailand, Korea, Indonesia etc. are some of the countries where I know from personal experience that the behaviour No 1 is much more pronounced.

Rajiv, looks like you've "been there"! We're a small group, so creating an environment where people can state their "gut feel" clearly, without repercussions of being looked down upon, may be a little easier here than elsewhere. We'll try that.

One thing I've noticed is that most people have an immediate reaction, in most situations, that's fairly accurate and clear. Reams have been written about how people should rely on their initial reactions more ("Blink", for example), and that seems to be true of our own people, too. But we all seem to be unwilling to trust that instinct, unwilling to say something unapalatable even if we know it is probably true.

Would love to hear if you have/anyone else here has tried specific steps/models/exercises to bring these issues home to people!

Narasimhan,

At Adobe India, I ran what was rated as one of the most productive teams at Adobe worldwide and my mantra for getting over these cultural issues and get the Indian team to sync-in with the US culture was - "whoever tells me the bad news that saves my skin gets an award". The -ve connotation with these behaviours has to be neutralized by i) the manager's ability to take -ve news and ii) mentor the team that bad news delivered early is better than bad news delivered late.

One of my mentors used the phrase - "managers are paid to worry" and he was always asking the team - what is the risk to your deadline that I can help mitigate.

Hope this helps,

Arvind

Arvind, thank you for those very specific ideas. We'll try some of these things and see how they go.

Your comment about managers being paid to worry - that's a good one that I will pass on to others!

If we have a holistic perspective of the entire issue, then saying 'No' becomes that much more easier.  We had a recent request from one of our customers for 'customizing' our Software Product.  Just so that we are talking the same language, I asked him "what in your opinion customization?" and he said "I want a few fields added along with some specific reports just for my use".  I told him "Good! Thanks for clarifying.  Sorry we do not provide customization of our products".  He said "I think you misunderstand me.  I'm willing to pay for the extra efforts". 

And I then explained to him about the implications of making code changes in a product both for him and for other customers and he was satisfied.

I was operating from a standpoint of what is important and good for the future of the product and the existing /future customers and hence saying 'No' to a request was automatic for me.

Far worse than saying 'Yes' is cutting off communication about what's happening when we have made a commitment.  People understand if there is a delay and are willing to wait but not if we refuse to take calls or 'forget' to return emails.

Badri, like you imply, the ability to say "No" takes tremendous courage and conviction. Especially when, as in your case, someone is offering to PAY for it all! We go through this issue, too, with Managers coming to me with the refrain: "But they are willing to pay for it!" Yes, but what of the impact of this effort on the growth of the product itself? After all, resources are not unlimited, so we now have to make a choice between a general feature that will benefit hundreds of users from different companies vs. a custom feature that helps ONE set of our customers. The choice has been fairly clear, in most cases.

I wonder how this applies in a Service situation, though...

Kishore,

Sadly the fundamentals of the product model have not been caught up yet and which is why we find mention of customization of the product quite frequent (in one of these discussions too).  Imho, customized product is an oxymoron.

And saying 'no' is not specific to a product solution but can be applied in a services context as well.  I recall a particular case where we (the organization I was representing then) were developing a software application for one of the leading forex traders in Middle East. Despite getting the specs document signed by the customer, we were getting repeated demands for 'small' changes and while we wanted this reference site, there came a time when we felt we were no longer bending backwards because our back was already on the ground!

And the technical person looking after the project was only too willing to accommodate the growing demands because he saw that as challenges to be overcome. But as the business manager responsible for timely delivery and profitability in addition to customer satisfaction, I took the call and in the next client meeting where some more demands were raised, I said that it does not figure in the initial specs and hence cannot be handled.  The client retorted, rightly so, that the initial specs document was no longer valid because there were so many changes already.  I told the CEO then that our willingness to go an extra mile has been misconstrued to be an open invitation for any number of changes and if you really want these changes, then we will renegotiate both the time and the cost.  I also pointed out how the same people who signed the specs document have been coming up with new changes and that the approved budget was based on the original scope.  The client told us that he will revert after internal discussions.

In the meanwhile, my project manager literally chided me for taking a stand that will kill the project and that too at such an advanced level.  While he saw my point in the context of endless changes, he saw those as demonstration of our execution capabilities.  Even my boss in India was of a similar opinion but I held my ground.

The client reverted that any further changes will be considered as an extension to the current project at a separate cost.

So if it's not about saying 'No' for 'No' sake but if it is in the context of a win-win, then wisdom will certainly prevail even in the most demanding of clients.