33
Chapter 4
Quiet Kirby
Back in her ofce, as Eliza was reecting on the con-
versation, one thing stood out. She smiled when think-
ing about how Kirby identied most with the prairie
dog being eaten by both the badger and the coyote.
Kirby didn’t say much as a general rule, but when he
did it was always worth paying close attention to and
usually quite funny—which was why his comment had
stayed with Eliza for so long.
Kirby was an enigma to most. In his mid- to late-
40s, he was healthy, albeit slightly overweight, and
was known to like hiking and biking. He wore his
hair long; he was clean shaven; his shirt was always
untucked; and he wore thick, black-rimmed glasses. All
in all, his style evoked the image of a hippie, but by all
accounts he did not drink, smoke, or do drugs. He was
not religious, as far as anyone knew.
34 ◾ Transforming Teams
Most surprisingly, given his quiet, gentle nature,
was the fact that he had served as a US Marine, hav-
ing deployed twice in the early years of the Gulf War.
The only indication of his service was the military issue
wristwatch that he wore and the fact that he was miss-
ing the tip of his right ring nger due to circumstances
that he never disclosed.
He didn’t discuss his military days. Actually, he
didn’t speak much about anything at all. He was a life-
long bachelor. As far as anyone knew, he did not have
a signicant other. He had no children of his own but
was very close to his niece and nephew, and his dis-
cussion of them offered only the slightest glimpse into
his personal life.
Kirby was the most quiet, gentle person Eliza had
ever worked with. And it was his calm and quiet
Quiet Kirby ◾ 35
demeanor that created so much difculty for him in the
workplace, where colleagues mistook this for timidity
and lack of condence, neither of which was true.
Although he didn’t speak up often, Kirby was a
great strategic thinker. Eliza reected on the position he
had held when she started at the company. He worked
on the production oor as a quality control manager,
and his keen ability to think through processes and
assess production conditions was the best Eliza had
ever seen. It was a skill that Kirby said he had honed in
the Marines, in one of the only references to his mili-
tary service that Eliza had ever heard him mention.
It was also a skill that, over time, the vice presi-
dent of manufacturing at HDS Tech at the time, a man
named Scott Baker, grew to dislike. Kirby was fre-
quently the bearer of bad news. He would see a mis-
take in production or determine a quality aw in the
modules and bring them to Scott. These issues typi-
cally resulted in a production slowdown or a complex
technical repair, which often resonated throughout the
entire sales, production, and customer service teams.
His commitment to quality became frustrating for many
in the organization.
But Eliza knew that, given the fact that each of the
client modules was custom made, the need for over-
sight like Kirby’s was absolutely essential. Custom-run
orders, by their very nature, frequently had quality con-
trol problems because each order had to be designed
to unique client specications. (This was why the lling
out of spec sheets was such a critical part of the com-
pany’s client management process.)
36 ◾ Transforming Teams
Even back then, Eliza could tell that Kirby was good
at his job. He was cautious, critical, and analytical.
Scott was aggressive, impatient, brusque, and tactless.
Scott came to view Kirby not as a team player, but as
an obstacle, “a weak, whining hippie,” as he had once
described him.
In Eliza’s estimation, Scott grew to seriously dislike
Kirby because he dug up problems and because he
was a bit of an “odd duck.” Eventually, Scott wanted
Kirby red and took the matter to Eliza, who had just
been named CEO. Indeed, this was her rst big man-
agement challenge.
Because she was new to HDS Tech and because
Kirby was a valued employee, Scott’s pressure to re
Kirby led Eliza to undertake an investigation, something
she was open and straightforward about with both Kirby
and Scott. She also informed the board about her inten-
tion to investigate Scott’s concerns and possibly make
some personnel changes. The board was highly con-
cerned, given that many board members had leveraged
signicant resources to fund the company based on the
performance of HDS Tech’s production quality. It was, to
say the least, a high-visibility, high-risk situation.
Eliza interviewed members of the production team.
She started with Scott and Kirby. Scott made his case
for Kirby’s ring, arguing that he was a control freak
and too introverted and obsessed with nding fault in
every aspect of production. This, he said, was bad for
the company and bad for morale. Kirby simply stated
that he was just doing his job, which was to antici-
pate and intercept quality problems in the production
Quiet Kirby ◾ 37
process, to identify solutions and, whenever possible,
resolutions.
She then interviewed the production manager, the
shift supervisors, and even some of the technicians
who manufactured the modules. Without exception, the
production personnel Eliza interviewed described Kirby
as capable, competent, knowledgeable, smart, and
quiet. They trusted him and all agreed that the work
that Kirby was doing was ensuring that HDS Tech was
producing the highest quality modules possible.
They also described numerous situations where Scott
would come onto the production oor and berate Kirby
in front of the entire production team over a rerun that
he had requested or about a quality control report that
suggested problems.
They described situations where Scott would stand
over Kirby and scream at him, waving a report or his
nger in Kirby’s face, even spitting on him as he yelled,
as some recounted.
Kirby, they said, would sit or stand quietly and not
react to Scott’s outbursts. And at the end of a tirade, when
Scott would ask if Kirby had had a change of heart or
had come around to Scott’s way of thinking, Kirby would
quietly and calmly stand his ground and defend his con-
clusions, which would touch off another rant by Scott.
This had, apparently, gone on for more than two
years.
Eliza was shocked and upset to learn this. Kirby had
never complained of this treatment. When asked if he
was happy with his job when she came onboard, he
had said he was “satised, which is sufcient for me.”
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