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Integrity of Communication 151

countable for progress. “In those meetings,” J.C. says, “we learned
how to laugh, we learned how to argue, and we learned how to dis-
agree—all with trust.”

By the standards of most leadership teams, the D1 team was hit-
ting on all cylinders. But J.C. knew that even the closest and smartest
of teams sometimes avoid critical but uncomfortable topics. For that
reason, every few months he and his team would meet with Ken
Macher, a San Francisco–based consultant, who specializes in helping
groups communicate effectively about their most critical issues.
Macher’s multi-day sessions with the team aimed to uncover hidden
assumptions, focusing as much on what was unsaid as on what was said,
and his sessions usually revealed concerns that had escaped open dis-
cussion and scrutiny.

To prepare for a July 1998 work session, Macher asked each team
member to document a recent conversation that he or she had found
frustrating or challenging. He asked them to write their learning cases
in two columns, with the right-hand column containing a word-for-
word record of what each person had said, as it might appear in a
movie script. In the left-hand column, the case writer would document
what was not said, the unshared thoughts and feelings during the con-
versation. Macher had used this “Left-Hand Column” exercise as a
learning tool in previous sessions, so team members knew that their
cases might be openly discussed with the full team.1

Doug Crisp, D1’s head of operations, prepared a case that de-
scribed a conversation between him and J.C. about growing problems
at Home Free Mortgage, their recently launched sister company.
Doug had been trying to convince J.C. for some time that the fledgling
business was in real danger. He thought its management team was too
inexperienced to deal with the current market downturn (it had re-
fused his attempts to help), and the business was hemorrhaging cash.
He was not the only person worried. “A number of people had severe
concerns about Home Free,” Ken Macher recalls, “but were not bring-
ing it up because it was perceived as J.C.’s pet project.” Uncharacter-
istically, J.C. had largely dismissed Doug’s concerns, thinking Doug
had a personality conflict with Home Free’s president and, therefore,
couldn’t see the situation objectively.

American Management Association • www.amanet.org