The Donna Weathers Situation (FreeMobility)

As a class, we saw Donna's disinterest in taking finance and Excel courses to equate to a lack of coachability. This very well may be true. It's also apparent that the rest of the executive team is skeptical of Donna's value in EMT meetings. Clearly, something in this dynamic has to change for FreeMobility to get on the right track. 

In the scenario where we wanted to keep Donna, we focused our discussion on how to strengthen her team's forecasting and reporting structures -- in other words, enabling Donna and her team to fit into the mold expected by her EMT peers. Again, this should be part of the strategy: for productive meetings and a productive company, we need the EMT to be able to communicate clearly and efficiently. At the same time, as Chen and Conroy, I see another element that needs to be addressed if Donna will be willing to stay: Donna needs to feel heard on her terms. Let Donna show off her strengths and expertise on the product just as the EMT has shown off their expertise in the conference room. 

Donna knows the product market better than anyone else at the company; she has longstanding relationships with customers and spends at least one day a week testing products herself. It's likely that the ex-consultants on the EMT have never stepped foot inside the manufacturing plant, spoken with users, or sat in the FreeMobility chair themselves. 

I'd work with Donna to organize an EMT field trip to the manufacturing plant, and arrange interviews with FreeMobility chair users. In this setting, Donna would be in her home environment, making her feel more comfortable and confident in sharing her expertise and vision. In turn, I'd hope that the EMT would develop more respect for Donna's expertise, and more empathy for the user. In future EMT meetings, Donna would still need to present better numbers (ideally prepared by a new hire with expertise in this area), but hopefully this off-site exercise would have paved the way for more respectful, productive relationships to form between Donna and the rest of the EMT.