The Compromise Trap

9Make Positive Plays

She told you my comment was the turning point? I had no idea,” said Scott, the senior vice president for learning and development who also functioned as the customer champion for a growing nationwide chain. I had called Scott because another vice president told me it had been Scott’s presentation three years before that was the turning point in the company’s transition to a customer-focused, quality-oriented organization from one that had spent most of its time putting out fires.

“He stood up in front of the firm’s two hundred managers and summarized his findings from his research with our field staff,” she said. “Basically, he said his interviews suggested that working here was sometimes like ‘setting your hair on fire and ...