The key moments of the Austrian working mentality in the IT field. What do we have in common and what is the difference?
This article prompted me to write one discussion that arose between me and my office colleague. By the way, we are both SAP consultants and work in a large Austrian company. Prior to this conversation, I received a project in development, on which I worked for quite a long time and hard. Naturally, there were various questions that I tried to clarify with more experienced colleagues, and sometimes, myself, as an already experienced consultant, made decisions. But here it is the first “inconsistency” of ours and their style of work. In Austria, a collective discussion on the resolution of any issues and the so-called “ shared responsibility ” were adopted. What does this mean, I will explain further.
This very colleague of mine explained to me that teamwork is encouraged much more than individual, especially within the IT department. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly communicate about the work progress, the decisions being made, the problem and issues that arise during the work within the team. Since simply "one head is good, but two is better." At the same time, it is necessary to take into account that we worked according to the Scrum methodology, and communications were held daily, but this was not enough.
So, the first conclusion.
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You cannot take on a large piece of work, assume that you alone are responsible for it, and provide results only upon completion. Naively suggesting that you will be praised and promoted for this. In Austria, you need to constantly talk about what you are doing and embellish, several to sell their work constantly, in order to raise its importance.
By the way, the exact same case occurred in the neighboring IT department, where my colleague from Ukraine, a consultant level I or II, worked. She took upon herself a fairly large amount of work, which was not successfully completed by her counterpart from France, Senior level before. She decided that she could "show" herself and complete this piece on her own, without outside help. This approach is practically forbidden in Austria.
According to the results of these events, our Austrian colleagues decided that this is such a “Russian style” of work, “to take over the work and act independently.” And here I fully agree with them, in Russian consulting companies, universities and schools, individual work is strongly encouraged. We always appreciate individual work. In Austria, group work constitutes a significant part of university studies. For me, at first it was even a problem, it is difficult for me to think collectively. It is not clear who is responsible for the result? And in the team responsibility is blurred.
And we come to the second feature of the Austrian working mentality - “ shared responsibility ”. This is such a responsibility, which is constantly lifted smoothly and the performers try to avoid responsibility as much as possible.
Therefore, the “team work” just corresponds to this approach. No one will ever raise the question of who has done this if a malfunction has occurred in a working system. Just start quickly restore everything. The one who is guilty and knows himself, therefore he will either first call for repairing the system, or indicate the reason. Most often, a problem is simply said that it has arisen. But no hint of who could do it. This happens to everyone, except for my colleague and the "brotherly" Slavic country, which out of habit asks who this wretch has done that has caused so many problems.
So, the second conclusion.
Never poke in the guilty, and do not look for it. Just ask for advice on how to fix the situation. The first to answer is the author of this error.
Quite an important point in Austrian business communication is the phrase "all people meet twice." This means that, in principle, when working in an Austrian team or firm, try to help everyone, of course, if you have the time and resources to do so. If not, then indicate when you can address the problem of a colleague, look at the code together, or think about an error. The principle is that it is generally accepted to help in the working team and there are no “own” and “alien” tasks in it. And the most important thing is that next time you may have to ask for help from a colleague, and how to say “meet him a second time” and then he will not be able to refuse you :). This principle works in any private part of your life.
And finally. Who first complained, he is right.
In Austria, starting from school, they encourage “snitching” and prohibit personal sorting out of relationships between students. Thus, if your child had a fight with a nearby boy, for example, from Turkey. Then your son, must first run to the teacher and say that he was offended (no matter who first raised his fists or said something extra). The law is one — who is first, he is right.
This law applies to professional relationships. Do not think that you can personally talk to a colleague and resolve any differences. He will go after the conversation and press the boss. Be on the alert and go first if something happens. The same applies to relations between spouses, the law will always be on your side if you are the first (or the first;) to sue spouses or special bodies.
This law gives rise to the fact that everyone is pretty sweet with you, and good behavior has long been in the blood. Since you have the right at any time for every wrong word complain.
In addition, in large companies once a year there are so-called Performance Interviews, in which you will be told what your colleagues think about you. Yes, that's right, your colleagues will be interviewed about how you work and how you have relationships with them. Therefore, remember that any wrong phrase may work against you. On the basis of this survey, your boss, especially if there is someone else in the hierarchical step between him and you, will form an opinion about you. Therefore, be extremely kind and speak constantly in the subjunctive mood with colleagues, straightforward and clearly understandable phrases. And nothing more.
On this interesting note, I aim to finish this article. In general, not everything is so sad, and happens in 10% of cases, so it's good to just have a general idea of ​​what you can expect. In 90% of cases everything is really good, and you and your children find many interesting friends among colleagues and subordinates! Because sometimes people really sincerely smile at you!
This very colleague of mine explained to me that teamwork is encouraged much more than individual, especially within the IT department. Therefore, it is necessary to constantly communicate about the work progress, the decisions being made, the problem and issues that arise during the work within the team. Since simply "one head is good, but two is better." At the same time, it is necessary to take into account that we worked according to the Scrum methodology, and communications were held daily, but this was not enough.
So, the first conclusion.
')
You cannot take on a large piece of work, assume that you alone are responsible for it, and provide results only upon completion. Naively suggesting that you will be praised and promoted for this. In Austria, you need to constantly talk about what you are doing and embellish, several to sell their work constantly, in order to raise its importance.
By the way, the exact same case occurred in the neighboring IT department, where my colleague from Ukraine, a consultant level I or II, worked. She took upon herself a fairly large amount of work, which was not successfully completed by her counterpart from France, Senior level before. She decided that she could "show" herself and complete this piece on her own, without outside help. This approach is practically forbidden in Austria.
According to the results of these events, our Austrian colleagues decided that this is such a “Russian style” of work, “to take over the work and act independently.” And here I fully agree with them, in Russian consulting companies, universities and schools, individual work is strongly encouraged. We always appreciate individual work. In Austria, group work constitutes a significant part of university studies. For me, at first it was even a problem, it is difficult for me to think collectively. It is not clear who is responsible for the result? And in the team responsibility is blurred.
And we come to the second feature of the Austrian working mentality - “ shared responsibility ”. This is such a responsibility, which is constantly lifted smoothly and the performers try to avoid responsibility as much as possible.
Therefore, the “team work” just corresponds to this approach. No one will ever raise the question of who has done this if a malfunction has occurred in a working system. Just start quickly restore everything. The one who is guilty and knows himself, therefore he will either first call for repairing the system, or indicate the reason. Most often, a problem is simply said that it has arisen. But no hint of who could do it. This happens to everyone, except for my colleague and the "brotherly" Slavic country, which out of habit asks who this wretch has done that has caused so many problems.
So, the second conclusion.
Never poke in the guilty, and do not look for it. Just ask for advice on how to fix the situation. The first to answer is the author of this error.
Quite an important point in Austrian business communication is the phrase "all people meet twice." This means that, in principle, when working in an Austrian team or firm, try to help everyone, of course, if you have the time and resources to do so. If not, then indicate when you can address the problem of a colleague, look at the code together, or think about an error. The principle is that it is generally accepted to help in the working team and there are no “own” and “alien” tasks in it. And the most important thing is that next time you may have to ask for help from a colleague, and how to say “meet him a second time” and then he will not be able to refuse you :). This principle works in any private part of your life.
And finally. Who first complained, he is right.
In Austria, starting from school, they encourage “snitching” and prohibit personal sorting out of relationships between students. Thus, if your child had a fight with a nearby boy, for example, from Turkey. Then your son, must first run to the teacher and say that he was offended (no matter who first raised his fists or said something extra). The law is one — who is first, he is right.
This law applies to professional relationships. Do not think that you can personally talk to a colleague and resolve any differences. He will go after the conversation and press the boss. Be on the alert and go first if something happens. The same applies to relations between spouses, the law will always be on your side if you are the first (or the first;) to sue spouses or special bodies.
This law gives rise to the fact that everyone is pretty sweet with you, and good behavior has long been in the blood. Since you have the right at any time for every wrong word complain.
In addition, in large companies once a year there are so-called Performance Interviews, in which you will be told what your colleagues think about you. Yes, that's right, your colleagues will be interviewed about how you work and how you have relationships with them. Therefore, remember that any wrong phrase may work against you. On the basis of this survey, your boss, especially if there is someone else in the hierarchical step between him and you, will form an opinion about you. Therefore, be extremely kind and speak constantly in the subjunctive mood with colleagues, straightforward and clearly understandable phrases. And nothing more.
On this interesting note, I aim to finish this article. In general, not everything is so sad, and happens in 10% of cases, so it's good to just have a general idea of ​​what you can expect. In 90% of cases everything is really good, and you and your children find many interesting friends among colleagues and subordinates! Because sometimes people really sincerely smile at you!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/299690/
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