The Local Team Knew

The Local Team Knew the Deal Wouldn't Work Head office makes a confident decision. A new market, a price and a partner. The regional team can see straight away that it won't work in their market. Either nobody asks them, or they say so once and nothing changes. Five months later the launch has failed, and it turns out the people in that market knew from the start. Meet Daniel, a commercial director at head office who's good at his job, and Ana, who has run the regional office for six years. Ana sees the plan for the first time on a call two weeks before launch. She knows the price is too high, the partner has a bad name locally, and the launch date falls in the quietest month of the year. She raises it in the clearest way she can in that room. Daniel hears a small detail and parks it. Neither of them is wrong, given what each of them knew. We look at why the company pays for a failure like this twice, and at the two reasons the knowledge never reaches the decision. First, where the decision rights sit: decisions are made at the centre, and there's no real way for what the region knows to travel up in time. Second, power distance: telling head office plainly that its plan won't work carries a real cost, so most people say it once, carefully, and then stop. Then what we can do about it, in two halves. First, when we ask and how we ask: bring the region in before the decision, and ask the people who know specific questions. Second, what happens to the answer: make it safe to disagree, and tell people what happened to their input, even when we decided differently. The company had the answer the whole time. It just never reached the people making the decision. IN THIS EPISODE (0:00) The local team knew from the start (0:40) Today's problem (1:00) Daniel, Ana and the launch call (3:50) What each of them understood (5:20) Why the company pays twice (6:40) Reason one: where the decision rights sit (8:20) Reason two: power distance (9:55) Why Ana said it once, softly, and then stopped (12:15) What to do, part one: when we ask and how we ask (15:20) What to do, part two: what happens to the answer (18:15) THE ONE THING (18:55) Work with Brendan WORK WITH BRENDAN If regional initiatives keep failing for reasons your local teams saw coming, that's exactly the kind of thing I work through one-to-one with leaders: advisory, coaching and workshops. You can find out more about the work I do at brendanthomasquinn.com, and you can also find me on LinkedIn. If you don't want to miss the next episode, hit subscribe wherever you're listening. MUSIC Music by Denis Pavlov / DPmusic via Pixabay SOURCES Bartlett, C. A. & Ghoshal, S. (1989). Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution. Harvard Business School Press. Detert, J. R. & Edmondson, A. C. (2011). Implicit Voice Theories: Taken-for-Granted Rules of Self-Censorship at Work. Academy of Management Journal, 54(3), 461–488. Browaeys, M.-J. & Price, R. (2019). Understanding Cross-Cultural Management. Pearson. Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J. & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. McGraw-Hill. Chapter times are approximate. Cultural Friction is hosted by Brendan Thomas Quinn who works with leaders and teams navigating cultural friction within teams that work together or are dispersed around the world — as an advisor, coach, and workshop facilitator, and as Adjunct Lecturer on an International Business Masters programme teaching Cross-Cultural Communication, Cultural Friction brings that same real-world, research-backed approach to your ears in 20 minutes. Enjoying the show? A quick rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify genuinely helps other leaders find it. And, if you have comments or would like to suggest future topics to be discussed, let us know, we'd love to hear from you.