"My boss just gave me a new challenge. A project has been going sideways for six months and now I have two weeks to get things going and make a $200,000 decision. Can you help me?"

A company in Houston had a design prototype for a new electronic product. The CEO had sub-contracted the manufacturing job to a company in Toronto. The product included plastic packaging, mechanical and electronic design, and firmware. A team of people in Houston, Wisconsin, El Paso, and Toronto had been assembled to build the product in volume.

For six months, several design prototypes had been rejected by the CEO in Houston. With each rejection, emotion escalated.

My client was the executive from the Toronto sub-contractor who called after reading my newsletter.

My first step was to meet the key team members on the phone individually.

They were feeling the stress of repeated rejection by the CEO and were anxious to get this resolved. I asked them what was going on and they gave me all the details. Quickly we got to know and trust each other.

These conversations gave me all the pieces of the puzzle. I put the pieces of the puzzle together and a plan emerged. I called each person to validate that I'd listened well, and fine-tune the plan.

After just one week, I could see the solution. The challenge was to get the entire team committed to the solution.

A resolution meeting took place the following week in Houston. The CEO opened the meeting with the words "We're a lousy team!".

My job was to lead a meeting of minds and gain commitment to my plan. Four hours of clear communication ensued. The CEO closed the meeting with the words "We've become a great team!"

We agreed to weekly conference calls to track progress. We hit a few bumps in the road and overcame them easily by working together.

The CEO had product ready to ship in volume six weeks later.