Team Development 147
of his technical competence and strategic vision, there is probably noth-
ing he won’t be able to accomplish.
Jack Welch didn’t develop GE’s team orientation overnight. Many of
his managers were used to guarding their own turfs; like the governors
in ancient Palestine, they zealously protected their right to people, land,
and money. But over time, Welch was able to institute a more team-
oriented culture, particularly through his management conclaves held at
GE’s famed Management Development Center at Crotonville. When
the head of appliances had a refrigerator compressor problem, managers
from the other businesses saw that he had been the victim of bad luck,
and so they chipped in ‘‘$20 million here, $10 million there’’ in the
same way that the people of Israel dipped into their pockets to help
build the temple.
But not every story of team effort has such happy endings as these.
Those of us working inside any type of organization know it’s easy to
be skeptical when managers and leaders at any level begin talking about
‘‘the team’’ and all its wonderful accomplishments. Too often these
statements are inflated, masking dissension, or rewarding those who
have actually contributed least to the team’s success.
That’s why Max De Pree’s team accomplishments at Herman Miller
are so remarkable. He opened his entire organization to James O’Toole,
a management consultant with a keen eye for spotting any posturing
and ‘‘sugar-coating’’ by CEOs. O’Toole’s initial skepticism was dented
when De Pree gave him permission to go anywhere and talk to anyone
in the company, manager or worker. It was blasted apart by what he
found:
The only problem was I couldn’t tell one from the other (manager from
worker)! People who seemed to be production workers were engaged in
solving the ‘‘managerial’’ problems of improving production and quality.
People who seemed to be managers had their sleeves rolled up and were
working, side by side, with everybody else in an all-out effort to produce
the best product in the most effective way.’’^26If O’Toole had visited Jerusalem while Nehemiah’s team was build-
ing the wall or while David’s ‘‘mighty men’’ were planning their next