Monica Ashley Case Study

• What were the most critical changes in the marketplace and customer requirements that gave rise to “Project Wind”?
- more renewable energy concerns
- generators that could support wind energy

• Why do you think Monica was chosen to lead this project? What do you suppose were CEO Dorr’s reasons for recruiting Monica as project manager?
- Her work ethic
- Detailed approach

• What do you consider as the most important steps that Monica took, or failed to take, that resulted in her dismissal from the project?
- She didn’t deal with Parker directly
- She relied too much of the chummy chummy with dorr
- She didn’t act like a top exec

• What are the key lessons you can take from this situation about the challenge of driving change from the middle
- Act the part- Be senior managers; that is, be quiet and circumspect and don’t engage in direct confrontation.’- dan
- Data and relationships are the key to success
- act on bad behavior right away- use humor to difuse a situation
- take a long term view instead of fighting every battle
- its ok to delegate- good balance btwn micro managing and delegating
- monica should have slowed down and been objective
- ‘Listen; Remove the Urgency; Trust
- make others look good so it looks good on you
- set a date to bring products in the market

Dan Stella
“I guess I must have given Dan fits because, in his eyes, I became unpredictable and seemingly uncontrollable, and therefore potentially embarrassing. I guess that doesn’t help him look good when he wants to win the respect of the senior managers. I don’t want to embarrass him; I want to learn how to function in a better way.” – Monica

- monica should have let parker hang himself- get others to see there is a problem and let them approach management with the issue
- monica viewed disagreement as dislike- not take it personally
- monica should have asked what he expected from her from this project
- monica should try to learn from stella