220 ◾ The 12 Pillars of Project Excellence
launches. I discussed with the vice president of the project group based in
the United States that in some parts of Asia, admitting a problem can be
considered a sign of weakness or ineptitude, and the offenders can face
some form of reprimand or punishment. Thus, the team members tried their
best to work through the problems without reporting them, hoping that the
issue would be somehow resolved before it was too late. I explained to the
vice president that the area manager of the Asia operations needs to clearly
communicate that the escalation plan is merely put in place to get support
from experts at the U.S. headquarters, so they can take immediate action
and keep the project on track. This communication ...