Paul, the legendary North American product evangelist, was sent to France for a week to train the 5 top French technical presales folks.
Paul emphasized three points:
1) Project full belief in the new product as a killer app.
2) Exude enthusiasm
3) Stress the fun of the product to minimize justified criticism
The French folks were to undergo three days of training.
Paul went home to Baltimore after day two and “shot off” an email that there is a morale problem in the French office, which over analyses and critiques the product more than the competition.
Looks like Paul takes the risk of a failure to enter the market when brushing away all form of criticism. On the deeper level his attitude may reflect a very different way to look at human relations on both side of the Atlantic (Great Britain excluded). In the US the majority of managers are still influenced by theory of population ecology which minimize to the extreme the role of individuals (if you are not a good soldier you have a moral issue). Continental Europe is more influenced by Lewin, Festinger, Parsons and dialogue, sometime heated discussions are not necessarily questioned the same way. But I may be reading too much!
Cher Patrick,
Please dont remind me of Parsons. Each sentence took a year to read.
allon