Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Getting Teams to Work: Are We Fixing the Wrong Problem?
Doug is the author of the landmark book, Extreme Project Management®: Using Leadership, Principles and Tools to Deliver Value in the Face of Volatility. He works with clients who undertake projects in very demanding environments: those settings that feature high speed, high change, high unpredictability and high stress. Doug has lived in the trenches—from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Beijing, China—with over 275 project teams with budgets that ranged from $25,000 to over $25 million. He is one of the founders of the Agile Leadership Network, an organization dedicated to connecting, developing and supporting great project leaders. He is known for his hard-hitting and humorous keynote speeches that address vital issues facing today’s project-based organizations. You can visit Doug at www.dougdecarlo.com.
Some would say that teams just happen and that you can do little to get them to jell. Actually, I used to believe this until I found myself face-to-face with the team that couldn't shoot straight.
About all this seven-member core team could do well was to shoot at each other. This took the form of blaming the other guy for not meeting deadlines, sarcastic remarks during team meetings, finger pointing, constant bickering, exclaiming, "I thought that was your job" and, at times, hurling outright insults across the table.
These interpersonal conflicts are devastating on extreme projects which have their own challenges to begin with; that is, these are high-speed, high-change, highly complex, high-stress ventures. As a result of their unresolved conflicts, this new product development team was four months behind schedule in meeting its market window.
Food, Beer and Rocks 'n Ropes
The team's problems had not gone unnoticed by senior management, who brought in the human resources department to intervene. The first intervention was to build camaraderie by getting the team members to get to know each other socially. A budget was approved for the team to go out on the town and have some fun. And that they did: Mets and Yankee baseball games, Chinese dinners, Italian dinners and bowling.
The team was also sent to Rocks 'n Ropes Training, a two-day offsite excursion at…
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"If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes and the quitting time." - Chinese Proverb |