Team That Wasn't
tCASE
STUDY
With a group of talented, hardworking people, why isn't this team working?
The Team That Wasn't
by Suzy Wetlaufer
The last thing Eric Holt had expected to miss about New York City was its sunrises. Seeing one usu~ ally meant he had pulled another all.nighter at the consulting firm where, as a vice president, he had managed three teams of manufacturing specialists. But as he stood on the balcony of his new apartment in the small Indiana city that was now his home, Eric suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia for the way the dawn plays off the skyscrapers of Manhattan. In the next moment, though, he let out a sardonic laugh. The dawn light was not what he missed about New York, he realized. What he missed was the feeling of accomplishment that usual1y accompanied those sunrises. An all-nighter in New York bad meant hours of intense work with a cadre of committed, enthusiastic colleagues. Give and take. Humor. Progress. Here, so far anyway, that was unthinkahle. As the director of strategy at FireArt, Inc., a regional glass manufacturer, Eric spent all his time trying to get his new team to make it through a meeting without the tension level becoming unbearable. Six of the top-level managers involved seemed determined to turn the company around, but the seventh seemed equally determined to sabotage the process. Forget camaraderie. There had been duee mcet~ iogs so far, and Eric hadn't even been able to get everyone on the same side of an issue. Eric stepped inside his apartment and checked tbe clock: only three more hours before he had to watch as Randy Louderback, FireArt's charismatic director of sales and marketing, either dominated the group's discussion or withdrew en· tirely, tapping his pen on the table to indicate his boredom. Sometimes he withheld information vital to the group's debate; otber times be coolly denigrated people's comments. Still, Eric realized, Randy held the group in such thrall because of his dynamic personality, his
STUDY
With a group of talented, hardworking people, why isn't this team working?
The Team That Wasn't
by Suzy Wetlaufer
The last thing Eric Holt had expected to miss about New York City was its sunrises. Seeing one usu~ ally meant he had pulled another all.nighter at the consulting firm where, as a vice president, he had managed three teams of manufacturing specialists. But as he stood on the balcony of his new apartment in the small Indiana city that was now his home, Eric suddenly felt a pang of nostalgia for the way the dawn plays off the skyscrapers of Manhattan. In the next moment, though, he let out a sardonic laugh. The dawn light was not what he missed about New York, he realized. What he missed was the feeling of accomplishment that usual1y accompanied those sunrises. An all-nighter in New York bad meant hours of intense work with a cadre of committed, enthusiastic colleagues. Give and take. Humor. Progress. Here, so far anyway, that was unthinkahle. As the director of strategy at FireArt, Inc., a regional glass manufacturer, Eric spent all his time trying to get his new team to make it through a meeting without the tension level becoming unbearable. Six of the top-level managers involved seemed determined to turn the company around, but the seventh seemed equally determined to sabotage the process. Forget camaraderie. There had been duee mcet~ iogs so far, and Eric hadn't even been able to get everyone on the same side of an issue. Eric stepped inside his apartment and checked tbe clock: only three more hours before he had to watch as Randy Louderback, FireArt's charismatic director of sales and marketing, either dominated the group's discussion or withdrew en· tirely, tapping his pen on the table to indicate his boredom. Sometimes he withheld information vital to the group's debate; otber times be coolly denigrated people's comments. Still, Eric realized, Randy held the group in such thrall because of his dynamic personality, his