Vietnam’s acceptance of mediocrity
by Rita Nguyen
One of the most frustrating things I find about shopping in Vietnam is that all the sales people continually tell you “it’s fine, it’s fine” while they’re imitating a bobblehead toy on an offroading expedition I’m sure everyone here has come across this. I ask for a size 6 shoe, they only have a size 5 but it’s fine. No green paint? Here’s some red. It’s fine. I get that they are just trying to make a sale but it’s irritating to be pushed to buy something I’m not looking for. Sometimes, it is fine despite the fact that it’s not what I asked for – living in a country like Vietnam, you just need to get zen about some of this stuff.
However, when it comes to work, it’s certainly not fine. The “it’s fine” excuse is used all time. The allowance of a half-assed job breeds a culture of mediocrity that is not okay. Everyone in the organization must understand what excellence looks like, how it can be achieved and their role in owning that.
Build a cult of excellence
Humans have a natural inclination to seek acceptance – no one wants to be the proverbial fat kid picked last. So ensure that everyone understands that when they are not delivering, they are not only letting themselves down, but their team mates as well.
Get rid of the deadweight
If everyone around you is an A player who delivers exceptional work, the mediocre ones are easy to pick out. Working at a huge company like EA, you can see B and C players hiding amongst the rock stars. In a start up, that’s a whole lot harder to do. In either cases though, leaders must take ownership of their team. Take the time to train and develop your people but don’t shy away from making tough decisions either. If you can’t break the it’s fine factor, you need to let them go before they infect others. Otherwise, you allow everyone to believe that excellence is optional, which is a slippery slope.
Canadian geek in Myanmar 
If you want to change something then you need to change the education system, people learn no history, learn English but ,not to communicate, etc….
But I think that any shop should hire an experienced man that can teach them how to handle the customer. But we are far from that point, because we are to expensive. So frustration will be a continuously problem. But do not forget the girl in the shopping in Europe is not always the smartest and can also give you wrong advice. Just smile and do her job. She gets at keast a decent salary. The shopping girl in Vietnam gets almost no salary and lives from the number of sales, so she is more pushing the sales, and thinks that “it’s fine” will do the job.
Thanks for the comment. Valid point for sure. It does all come down to training, which is partly why I write this blog 🙂
Have you travelled to other developing countries such as Egypt or even Cambodia? They also can be pushy but it’s a very different experience. You don’t get ‘it’s fine’ but rather, just different choices and options. And while it may not be what I’m looking for, at least it’s more of a problem solving approach than just acceptance of a sub-par solution.
You right.. I am sure most of them have never taken any sales course especially the retailers. But you have right to buy what you need and refuse whatever they offer. Most of case the salers do what you have seen but they
never mind when you leaving way. Please remember that nowhere has perfected person.
This reply is a perfect example of the Vietnamese “it’s fine, it’s fine”.
I would like to offer a different point of view – as Rumes said above, the education system is one of the main problems, and I would add that that education system goes straight to the person doing the hiring and managing and how they educate and train their teams. 13 years in Vietnam showed me you can easily break through the “it’s fine’ paradigm by showing what is not fine, and then enabling your people to execute actual top quality work. Training, education, establishing systems check and balances, rewards, and much more – there are ways to get bast mediocrity and I challenge if you are complaining about your mediocre staff, look in the mirror and examine whether you have made the effort to instill change and a drive for quality among your teams.
Thanks for the comment Aryeh. You’re absolutely spot on! This is most certainly a management issue and I do feel that any failures in the team (not just the ‘it’s fine’ thing) is mostly a failure in management and managers. Take a look at my building team culture in Vietnam blog for more details on that.