100 D
EFINING
M
OMENTS
concerns were that important? Walters apparently interpreted his
reaction as indicating that he wouldn’t stand in the way of firing
McNeil. Walters may have even thought that Adario wanted McNeil
fired but was unwilling to do it himself.
Moreover, Adario should have realized much earlier that Walters
was a threat to McNeil and to the values he wanted to instill in his
department. Recall that she was reluctant to hire McNeil in the first
place and that she and others in the department were inclined to
bulldoze their decisions through the organization. None of this, by
itself, may have meant much. Together, however, they formed a
pattern that should have put Adario on alert.
Machiavelli would have admired Adario if, from the beginning, ...