Joe Frontiera - Team Turnarounds: A Playbook for Transforming Underperforming Teams

Copyright 2012 by Joe Frontiera and Daniel Leidl. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Frontiera, Joe, 1975

Team turnarounds : a playbook for transforming underperforming teams / Joe Frontiera, Daniel Leidl. First edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-14478-7

ISBN 978-1-118-26372-3 (mobipocket) ISBN 978-1-118-23908-7 (epub) ISBN 978-1-118-22574-5 (pdf)

1. Terms in the workplace. 2. Organization. 3. Leadership. 4. Management. I. Leidl,

Daniel, 1974 II. Title.

HD66.F76 2012

658.4'022dc23

2012016807

To our friendship,
our wives, our team

Foreword: Adversity Introduces Us to Ourselves

What do NFL teams, a Broadway musical, a university childcare center, a pizza maker, a public school system, a motorcycle trailer manufacturer, a collegiate lacrosse team, and a state all have in common? Stumped? They, and other equally fascinating organizations, are the case examples in Team Turnarounds , a highly entertaining and enlightening read about very diverse organizations that shared one common problem: they were all failing or floundering and needed to reverse course.

Because of the sheer breadth of their examination, its hard to imagine how Joe Frontiera and Dan Leidl could pull this off. But they haveand to great effect. These stories are so well narrated that youll think youre reading an edge-of-your-seat detective story. And Team Turnarounds really is like that in many ways. Here are tireless leaders who face severely vexing challenges and puzzling situationsmany of which they and others have never before encountered. And these leaders are refreshingly honest about the realities of life in organizations that arent performing up to expectations. That life can be embarrassing, depressing, exhausting, and heartbreaking. Yet, at the same time, it can also be exhilarating, uplifting, meaningful, and rewarding. It all depends on how you view the challenge.

While reading this book, we were reminded of a comment made by John McDonnell, former CEO of McDonnell Douglas, when that company was going through its struggles before eventually merging with Boeing. Adversity introduces you to yourself, he said, reflecting upon what that struggle had brought for him. And we recalled another thought from Randy Melville, whom we interviewed when he was with Pepsi. Quoting his Princeton University basketball coach, Pete Carril, Randy said, Adversity doesnt build character, it reveals it. Challenges, difficulties, setbacks, adversitiesthey are all familiar sights on the leadership landscape. And one of the things that they cause us to do is come face-to-face with ourselves. They are a rather harsh way of reminding us of whats important to us, what we value, and where we want to go.

Leaders are no strangers to challenges. In fact, exemplary leaders thrive on them. Team Turnarounds offers you the hard-earned lessons learned by the amazing people who led the transformations. And Joe and Dan have done an exemplary job of pulling these lessons together in a way that is not just applicable to the folks in the book. They show us how these lessons are applicable to all of us, and how they are especially useful during the turnarounds we are now dealing with, or will inevitably confront, in our organizations and our lives. There are lessons in here about the importance of values and visions, about commitment and meaning, about teamwork and relationships, about resilience and positivity, about initiative and commitment, and about courage and heart.

But you dont have to wait for things to get bad on your team or in your organization to benefit from Joe and Dans insights and practical wisdom. Filled with fresh, revealing examples from sports, business, education, retail, and large and small organizations, the examples are illuminating in their depth and take-away applications. You and your entire team will benefit from the books Team Turnaround Workbookit alone is worth the price of the book. Youll find essential questions you must answer, tasks you must complete, and preparations you must take to successfully reverse the course of a losing team, a failing company, or a stalled initiative.

Team Turnarounds is, in the end, a book about hope. A book about how you can mobilize others to transcend the present difficulties, bounce back from failures, and reach for greatness. Its a book about the power of the human spirit. Enjoy.

Jim Kouzes
Orinda, California
Barry Posner
Santa Clara, California
March 2012

Introduction

In 2009, the state of Michigan was in a downward spiral. Statewide, it was hemorrhaging jobs, and unemployment offices were receiving 800,000 to 1,000,000 calls per day.

Governor Jennifer Granholm, then in her second term, recalled, In our unemployment offices, people were in line down the street. [There were] people [who] had never collected unemployment before. The system was like a cancer patient that was breaking down everywhere.

Granholm had reason to be concerned, and as time went on, the situation only worsened. Moreover, she had long believed that Michigans manufacturing culture was working against the situation.