182 ◾ Transforming Teams
Eliza sat back and watched as the badger and the
coyote left her ofce. Never, not in a million years,
would she have anticipated that they would be making
requests like this, that they would be working together
so well, or that they would be thinking about this at the
company’s busiest time of the year. She couldn’t wait to
see what they came back with next. Yes, the sh rots
from the head down. But inspiring leadership ows that
way, too. Eliza was excited for them and for HDS.
* * *
True to their promise, the badger and the coyote returned
to Eliza’s ofce a week later with their completed offer.
“We spoke with Charles and Karen, and they are
willing to train us so that we can deliver this in-house.
We’ve come up with the following training schedule,”
said Claire, handing Eliza a spreadsheet with times,
dates, and participant names.
“What’s this?” asked Eliza, reviewing the material.
“What does ‘Eliza B&C&GN’ mean?”
Dave smiled, “Well, we want you to tell the badger
and coyote story, and we want you to formalize your
golden nuggets into a sort of ‘best practices’ for manag-
ers. Will you do it?”
Eliza laughed. “Sure, I’d be happy to. I mean, yes, I
accept your request and will provide that content in the
time and format that you’ve laid out here. I do have a
condition of satisfaction, though. I could use your help
in reviewing what I put together so that it satises your
expectations.”
“We agree,” said Claire.
Components ofCollaboration ◾ 183
“I have one nal request,” said Eliza. “When we’re
done with this internal training, I want you to be think-
ing about how we can keep this learning and these
practices alive in the organization. I’ve been thinking
about this. I don’t want this to always be a top-down
thing. I want these practices modeled and embraced
throughout the company. Will you agree to work with
me to gure out how to do that?”
“Yes, absolutely,” they said in unison.
Over the next few months, HDS Tech was humming
with collaboration teamwork. All of the employees had
completed the Components of Collaboration training,
as it had come to be known. All employees, including
the new hires, the seasonal employees, even the part-
time temp working in accounting, received the training.
So enthusiastic was the reception that members of the
board of directors were scheduled to receive the train-
ing in a couple of weeks.
Eliza kept her promise to consider rolling it out to
the company’s clients and reached a compromise with
Dave and Claire. Rather than offer it to companies for
their employees, they would offer it to a couple of
small groups of key client contacts by invitation only—
the contacts with whom HDS Tech had the closest
connections.
Eliza instituted a Caught in the Act program, which,
much to her surprise, was also a huge success. The
inspiration for the program came from her golden nug-
get about positive feedback “rst, nal, and frequent.”
The program had a few essential components:
184 ◾ Transforming Teams
First, the act had to be observed and com-
mented on or recorded as soon after the
observation as possible—that day or the
next, for example.
The observer had to describe the act that
was observed.
The observer had to describe the conse-
quences of what was observed.
The observer had to describe how it made
the observer feel and why.
The observer could post his or her “Caught
in the Act” either on the internal “shout
out” wall or on the physical “shout out”
wall in the lunchroom.
Eliza was delighted by what was on the wall already.
“I saw James reading Suzanna’s DISC report
before sitting down with her to discuss
her performance review.”
“I overheard Lisa making a promise to follow
up on a client issue within two hours.”
“Steve held me accountable for failing to
keep or manage my promise to complete
the production timeline.”
And on and on. Other reinforcing programs were under
way, as well.
The marketing team lmed various employees dis-
cussing different aspects of the learning and made a
library of the lms. One video discussed strategies for
holding peers accountable along with language tips
and role-modeling ways to have difcult conversations.
Components ofCollaboration ◾ 185
Another video gave tips on how to ex your body
language and communication style for dealing with dif-
ferent behavioral types. Another video proled various
employees discussing ways that they had been success-
ful in improving their trustworthiness as it related to
sincerity or reliability or competence.
The team aimed to roll out a new video every
two weeks throughout the year, and before long the
library’s Components of Collaboration section had more
than a dozen videos, and counting.
The HR department revised the formal performance
management evaluation forms to include matrices and
goals around sincerity, reliability, competence, and making
and managing promises. For the rst time, employees set
their own goals for improving their own trustworthiness.
Eliza took responsibility for sending out a weekly
“golden nugget” e-mail to all employees. It had become
so popular that clients and friends and associates had
asked to join the e-mail list, which was now reaching
500 external contacts.
As a gag, at the annual holiday party, a gift copy of
Hiscock’s Coyote and Badger was given out to two indi-
viduals who collaborated well, either cross-functionally
or cross-behaviorally. Dave and Claire received the rst
copy, of course.
* * *
Eighteen months later, Eliza stood before an audi-
ence of industry leaders, accepting the Innovation in
Modular Technology award on behalf of HDS Tech. She
was nervous but extremely proud of the recognition
that the company was receiving. Standing at the lectern,
186 ◾ Transforming Teams
she took a sip of water and a deep breath to calm her
nerves, prepared her thoughts, which were not written
down, and then she began to deliver her speech.
Thank you, all of you, for this award. Being
recognized in this way by our peers who we
most admire is a great honor.
If, just one year ago, you had told me that
we would be winning this award, I would
have been shocked.
You see, not very long ago, I was worried
that we weren’t going to make it. You look sur-
prised, but it’s true. We had the right people.
We had the right ideas. And we had plenty of
capital. But we were not “one.” We were silos
and efdoms and battleelds. Our people were
talking past each other. I didn’t realize that,
when I started to triage these problems, what
we lacked was a common language.
We lacked a language to help us navigate
our interpersonal challenges. A language to
help us make and manage our promises. A
language to make accountability in the orga-
nization not just a carrot and a stick, but a
game . . . a gift . . . a goal.
Everyone in this industry knows technol-
ogy matters. Capital matters. But you know
as well as I do that what matters most is our
people . . . our talent. But even if you have the
best talent in the industry, there’s one thing
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