Comment by Nursie

That particular cultural norm (or way of doing business, in deference to 'flarg' who is better acquainted with this than I am) has got in the way of producing quality work several times in the past, and ruined the productivity we were trying to get from outsourcing in the first place (it was not my decision, I just had to try and make it work).

  "So you understand what you have to do?"
  "Yes"
  "And you have all the documentation and information you need?"
  "Yes"
  "OK great, let's get this thing going, get in touch if you need any help"

Two weeks later -

  "How's progress on the project?"
  "I have not been able to start the work because I could not understand..."