About a month ago - before downsizing was mentioned - our project's culture suddenly changed for the worse.
It took about a week. At the start of the week we were - officially - a blame free culture. By the end of the week the fingers of blame were pointing every-which-way.
It started when - suddenly - it dawned on everyone that we're not going to meet our promised deadline. No one was brave enough to speak up - our culture doesn't reward this kind of honesty. (Honesty is saved for quarterly performance reviews). Instead everyone took defensive actions to ensure that when we don't meet the deadline, they aren't blamed.
Demarco and Lister claim, in Waltzing with bears, that this reaction is common: in many cultures it is safer to deliver a project late than to admit it might deliver late. It's a pity because if we did value early honest feedback, and made it safe, we could do something about it - early, while there is still time.
This, as I said, was before the downsizing announcement:
- In some ways it's worse now - no one wants to stick their necks out while the man is sharpening his axe.
- In some ways it's better now - who can blame us when we miss the deadline following a 20% cull. Who can blame us?
