“I’m not going to tell them.”
That was the decision made by Charlie, an engineer working on an advanced project team to develop new technologies for his company.
“I know the solution, but I’m not going to give it to them.”
The team had been struggling with technical challenges for months. They’d resolved one problem after the other smoothly until the work ground to a halt a week ago, with an intractable problem that stumped the senior engineers. Every idea had failed, and no one on the team had any suggestions for the future. The whole project was on the verge of collapse.
Charlie sat silently in the meeting while knowing he had the solution — he’d tested it and was certain it would work. Yet he said nothing.
Charlie wasn’t a bad person — sabotaging team projects wasn’t something he’d normally do. But in this group, he’d been pushed to his limits.