59. Blues Services, a large print publishing house, added two new employees
to one of its work group teams (Blue Lightning) last year to replace a retiree and
a promotion. The Blue Lightning team was responsible for global marketing and
advertising for several monthly print pieces: a travel journal, an eco-tourism
monthly, a food and restaurant guide with recipes, and an in-flight magazine for
a well-known commercial air carrier. Pat, a 40-something Hispanic female,
headed the team and had primary responsibility for the travel journal. Dave, a
60ish white male, had primary responsibility for the food and restaurant guide
and general long-term account management. Amanda, a new college graduate
with marketing major, was hired to replace Clyde, the retiree who was
responsible for the in-flight magazine. Nathan, an ex-army sergeant who did
much of his college work while on active duty, had responsibility for the eco-
tourism monthly. Pat had called a staff meeting to work on team productivity.
Numbers were down from a year ago. Expenses were doubled. Pat had talked to
the senior human resources consultant, Toby, before the meeting about this
team intervention. She told Toby, “I can’t believe Nate is only two years older
than Amanda. He is so reliable and responsible. They both have great technical
skills. Remember? We didn’t have to train either one of them at all in any of the
computer support. Mobiles, tablets, spreadsheets, they knew all of it. Amanda is
like my high school aged daughter in so many ways! She talks all day on the
phone or to someone. She does her work while she talks and it has to be
checked and fixed most of the time. On the days she is out of the office, more
work gets done more smoothly. I let her travel as much as possible, but it is
eating up my budget.” Toby commented, “You have to keep this team intact, as I
recall. You can’t replace Amanda?” Pat shook her head. “We are it. Thank you for
agreeing to facilitate our session. We have to change something. What are you
going to do?” Toby said, “I’ll do a deliberate team intervention. We should get a
long way this afternoon. I assume Dave is the same steady contributor he has