ATB

Like my classmate Margie, I focused in on Martin's (almost) lateness and what Kathryn might do in the Five Dysfunctions of a Team, . . . how she went through her options, . . . what she felt she could and what was best to do. I have had a similar experience. I was involved in the delivery of a training class on billing. The goal was to move shift tickets to bill quicker. 

Part of the training centered around the fact that billing starts with salespeople and the Sales dept. If Sales makes mistakes when setting up the customer it has significant downstream effects. So the crux of the training was to bring everyone from Sales, through Operations, to Billing together in one room and find ways to speed the billing process. Naturally, when we went around the nation to the different locations and regions to provide the training, we had some pushback. 

When salespeople hear "billing process" they automatically think that it's for billing and has nothing to do with them. We got to one training site and one of the big wig sales and operations guys from a large and very important business line, who was loathe to even come to the training strolled in and sat in the middle of the room, near the front, and as soon as we started the training he opened his computer and started working. It was a very deliberate move on his part. I did that same mental calculation as Kathryn and was forced to go over to him, stand over him and tell the class that we needed everyone's attention and that there would be plenty of time to check emails on laptops at breaks. Then I waited. Eventually, he got the picture. It was touch and go there for a second. 

I think that political capital, power plays, and politics, in general, are an energy sink at the office and in business. I'm usually told my flaw is I'm too candid. I've also been told I don't play the game. Although they are not given to me as compliments when I'm told these or similar constructive criticism I treat them as compliments. I like that in the book there is a lot on breaking down barriers and trust and conflict. The other day I had a bit of conflict with one of our other senior leaders. I disagreed with what she was proposing. It has sense gotten out that she felt she was "attacked" due to my disagreeing with her. Where I saw it as a healthy conversation and I was ready for an intense discussion, she saw it as an attack. Perhaps I am too abrupt. 

All this being said, like you I enjoyed that little part of the book and all of the moments where Kathryn had to determine just how far she could push things and at what time.

P.S. The end result of our training by the way was a drop in DSO from 72 to 60 days within 6 months with each day representing a further collection of $1M dollars. For a $300M company to recognize revenue that much quicker was a pretty big win and more than worth the investment. So it was successful and I look back at that training and that leader's computer laptop powerplay as a win for our training group.