PART ONE
Considering Context
SHAWN WAS A SELF-DESCRIBED military brat who lived in five different countries when he was growing up and going to school. As a child, he was disciplined and self-directed and never questioned authority. This worked to his competitive advantage while he was in engineering school. Once he started working, however, he found himself out of context. His company did not worry about whether employees came to work on time or worked a set number of hours. It put a higher value on building relationships and measured success by the quality of the team’s effort rather than individual contributions. After a few months, Shawn was beginning to wonder just how he fit in and even whether he had chosen the right career. The context ...
