Chapter 17 — Exercises

These rehearse the "I within we" balance — generous collaboration and visible individual contribution. Sample answers for closed items follow.

A. What Would You Do?

Scenario 1: Invisible team player

On a successful project you mostly supported others and smoothed conflicts; teammates got individual praise, you didn't. You: - (a) Conclude individual credit is unfair and keep being all-team. - (b) Keep supporting the team and make your specific contributions visible going forward ("I within we"). - (c) Start grabbing all the credit. - (d) Resent it silently.

Scenario 2: The credit-grabber

A colleague presents work you did as "their" contribution. You: - (a) Say nothing (harmony first). - (b) Gently correct the record: "Right — Sam and I built that together; glad it's working." - (c) Publicly attack them as a thief. - (d) Throw them under the bus later in revenge.

Scenario 3: The quiet colleague

In a mixed team, a thoughtful colleague from a harmony culture keeps getting talked over and his good ideas missed. You: - (a) Ignore it — not your problem. - (b) Bridge: "I think Kenji raised something important earlier — Kenji, want to expand on that?" - (c) Take his idea and present it as yours. - (d) Tell him he should just be louder.

Scenario 4: Working out loud

Your team expects progress shared openly in Slack and tracked in Jira; you're used to showing only finished work. You: - (a) Keep work hidden until it's perfect. - (b) Adapt to "working out loud" — share progress, update tasks, document decisions. - (c) Refuse, finding it exposing. - (d) Share nothing and miss deadlines silently.

Scenario 5: The over-correction (new)

After learning "self-promote, be visible," you've started saying "I" for shared work and subtly diminishing teammates. People are cooling toward you. You: - (a) Push harder — visibility is what counts. - (b) Recognize you've over-corrected into credit-grabbing — return to "I within we": visible and generous, accurate "we" for shared work. - (c) Swing all the way back to invisible modesty. - (d) Credit teammates publicly again and rebuild collaborative support.

Choose and justify each. Why is Scenario 1(b) the resolution of the "paradox"? Why does the over-correction (Scenario 5a) backfire even in an individualist culture?

B. Decode This

  1. "Be a team player."
  2. "Take credit for your work."
  3. "Don't throw your teammate under the bus."
  4. "Own your part of this."
  5. "We need everyone to pull their weight."
  6. (new) "Let's give credit where it's due."
  7. (new) "Who owns this?"

C. Translate Between Cultures

Task 1 — From "all we" to "I within we." You led a key part of a successful team project. Write a description that's a generous collaborator AND makes your individual contribution visible.

Task 2 — Bridge a mixed team. A quiet colleague's good point was overlooked. Write one sentence you could say to surface it and give them credit.

Task 3 — Make glue-work legible (new). Describe one piece of invisible "glue work" you do (coordinating, smoothing, anticipating). Write how you'd surface it at a review without bragging ("I coordinated across the three teams and unblocked the data handoff").

D. Culture-Shock Journal

  1. Credit. How does credit work in your home culture — shared, or individual? How did the Western individual-credit-in-teams feel to you?
  2. Your balance. Are you more "all we" (invisible) or "all I" (credit-hog)? Where's your growth edge?
  3. Bridge. How could your cross-cultural fluency help your team value both collaboration and individual contribution?
  4. The over-correction risk (new). If the pain of being overlooked tempted you to overshoot into credit-grabbing, how would you catch yourself and rebalance?

E. Ask a Local

Ask a colleague: - "How do people here get individual credit on team projects without seeming like credit-grabbers?" - "What does 'being a good team player' actually look like here?" - (new) "What makes someone lose the team's trust here?"

Record the answer.

F. Self-Assessment

Rate 1–5: 1. I collaborate generously and support teammates. 2. I make my individual contribution visible. 3. I credit others publicly and correct the record kindly when needed. 4. I use collaborative tools (work out loud, document, async). 5. I help bridge styles in mixed-culture teams.

Note date and scores. (Appendix J collects the book's self-assessments.)

Sample Answers & Discussion

A: 1 → (b) — keep collaborating and get visible ("I within we"); all-team (a/d) stays invisible, all-credit (c) makes you a hog. 2 → (b) — gentle correction protects your work without attacking; silence (a) erases you, public attack/revenge (c/d) damages trust. 3 → (b) — bridging is a prized asset and the right thing; (c) steals, (d) dismisses. 4 → (b) — adapt to working-out-loud transparency. 5 → (b)/(d) — return to "I within we" (visible and generous); credit-grabbing is penalized even here because Westerners also value team players.

B — Decode This: 1 = collaborate/support others (while still contributing individually). 2 = make your specific contribution known (expected). 3 = don't blame/sacrifice a colleague to protect yourself. 4 = take individual responsibility for your piece. 5 = everyone must do their fair share (no free-riding). 6 = acknowledge who actually did the work (a norm against credit-stealing). 7 = "who's individually accountable for driving this?" (they want a clear owner).

C — Task 1 model: "I led the data layer and built the integration, and I'm proud of what the whole team delivered — we shipped two weeks early." Task 2 model: "Before we move on — I think Mai made an important point earlier about the timeline risk. Mai, could you say more?" Task 3: the move is to name the specific coordination and its result, turning invisible glue into a legible, creditable contribution.

D, E, F are personal — your honest reflection is the answer.