Designing the Psychological Environment

Despite the fact that more champagne was trickling down his cheeks than had gone down his throat, Ted was feeling euphoric. As he looked around at the raucously celebrating group that had just poured a bottle of the expensive stuff over his head, he reflected back on the many trials and triumphs of the Fox Team. Their motto, "Over the Top," waving on a banner overhead, captured the spirit that had gone into producing the company's first lightweight, all-terrain hiking boot. Not only was the sales force reporting an enthusiastic response to the first batch into the market, but the team had just won the coveted corporate "First, Best" award."I never thought of myself as a leader," Ted mused. But this project had demanded more than the usual management skills, as important as they were. For one thing, everyone on the team already had stock options and a reasonable salary. So Ted couldn't count on money to get them really charged up. Taking them out to visit hiking clubs had been a good idea—visiting customers had engendered a lot of enthusiasm and suggested some pretty radical ideas. The big one, of course, was the thin, shock-absorbing sole that the engineers had initially said was far too risky to manufacture, but which protected the foot while giving hikers a real "feel" for the terrain. And the team members he had selected certainly had a good time together, both working and playing—despite an initial rough start. But what made Ted most proud was the way the team had rallied after they got the bad news that their initial design of the boot tongue abraded the foot—so they had to go back to the drawing boards. He hoped that he had contributed to their positive attitude by presenting the bad news as a challenge he was confident they could meet and learn from. Good thing he had been right. Working on the tongue redesign had suggested a number of changes for the heel as well.The project had been lucky, too. If Joe hadn't gone camping just the weekend that he did, and if he hadn't told the rest of the team about the way the tent lines seized up so he couldn't get the tent down, the group might never have thought of the now-patented grommets that kept the boot laces from slipping. "But just maybe I helped that happen too," thought Ted. "The group would never realize it, of course, but if I hadn't had the Monday morning 'show and tell' meetings… or if I hadn't insisted that particular Friday that we all leave the darned grommet problem until Monday to solve… In fact,…" Ted thought, with the sly grin that had inspired the team's name, "I'm getting a pretty big head over my part in this project. But they'll whittle it down to size at tonight's 'roast,' I'm sure."