“Like so many other aspects of life, teamwork comes down to mastering a set of behaviors that are at once theoretically uncomplicated, but extremely difficult to put into practice day after day.”

Patrick Lencioni emphasizes the importance of mastering behaviors that support effective teamwork, suggesting that it takes ongoing practice to achieve success.

“After its first few euphoric months of existence, the company began experiencing a series of ongoing disappointments.”

Here, Lencioni implies that the “euphoria” that came from the company’s strong start has masked the problems that have led to disappointing results.

“There was just no mistaking the fact that, on paper, Kathryn was an old school, blue-collarish executive. That presented a stark contrast to the DecisionTech executives and middle managers, most of whom had little experience working outside of the Valley.”

The contrast between Kathryn Petersen’s blue-collar background and the more tech-oriented backgrounds of her colleagues lays the groundwork for the tensions between the new CEO and the executive leadership team.