There are several reasons employees don’t naturally tend to volunteer bad news: It seems to conflict with an ownership culture. A common management adage is “Don’t bring me a problem without bringing me a solution.” This idea encourages ownership, empowerment, and responsibility among the employees, but it has a dark side. For one thing, what employees are likely to hear is just “Don’t bring me a problem.” At a deeper level, what if you know about a problem but you can’t solve it? What if you’re an engineer who sees a fundamental weakness in your software architecture, but doesn’t have the
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