Commentary

• Assemble the Right Team.

  • No wonder Bill was the big idea beneficiary in this episode: he brainstormed with Amy and Katrina, who had earned reputations for creativity, while rival project manager Troy traded ideas with Kwame and Heidi, who had not.  Surrounded by talented by largely conventional thinkers, Troy pedaled in place all episode.

• Create a Safe Space. 

  • Bill always let his teammates know it was okay to let their imaginations run wild.  As Katrina suggested several bad ideas near the start of this episode, Bill's carefully neutral face and body language are the marks of an effective listener.  Katrina knows her ideas haven't clicked, but also that it's safe to try again.

• Wait for the Big One. 

  • Again, watch Bill.  At first, he takes in Katrina's barrage of mediocre suggestions with professional neutrality.  Then when the one red-hot idea comes, he takes decisive action.  The instant Amy suggests selling advertising on the vehicles, Bill terminates the brainstorming session and throws the entire team into making the strategy work.  "If we put this together it will be a bloodbath," he predicts.  And he's right on the money.
    Meanwhile, over at Protege project manager Troy goes with his own prepaid rickshaw ride card as the idea that will seal the win.  An outside-the-box thinker if ever there was one, Troy fails to stretch his imagination just when he needs it most.  The ride card flops, and in the boardroom he concedes that the task was lost in its opening hour: "Our idea was great," he admits, "theirs was brilliant."

• Have Fun. 

  • Troy was as low as he could go: charged with making the most money in a day as the head of a fleet of pedicabs, he watched helplessly while his vehicles sat empty at the curb--his marketing brainstorm or prepaid ride cards proving as popular with New Yorkers as the Red Sox--while the other team's pedicabs rolled by covered with advertising that he's never thought to sell.  But rather than throw up his hands, Troy threw on his hat, grabbed some handlebars, and took to the streets as the freewheeling Rickshaw Cowboy.  All at once, sales turned a corner.  In order to make fortune take flight, sometimes you need to learn the simple value of a smile.

• Celebrate Your Colleagues' Strengths. 

  • When Amy had the idea to sell advertising on her team's fleet, project manager Bill positively beamed.  He put all his energy behind the idea and gave her full credit for it.  After their victory, Bill looked more than ever like the front-runner:  his air of authority in the face of a strong collaborator and competitor showed a leader's confidence.
    But even as Bill cemented his leadership credentials, Katrina did the opposite.  She bristled when Bill chose Amy's idea over her own and had a testy give-and-take with him afterward.  She was still stewing days later--even though the idea had proven successful and Katrina had shared in the victory.  "Amy needs to be the star of every transaction," Katrina snipped.  Katrina's envy made her look small, and by refusing to celebrate her colleague's strength she revealed her own weakness.

• Watch Your Mouth. 

  • Bill carried himself with a leader's poise not only during the task, but also during downtime.  Even in the heat of his quarrel with Katrina, Bill managed his mouth as effectively as he managed his teammate's resentment. It was easy to imagine him on the other side of the boardroom table.

• Be Accountable. 

  • Troy was, in his own words, "looking up the backside of a dead dog with fleas" after Bill's fleet handed him a spectacular drubbing.  But in the boardroom, Troy chose not to point fingers.  Instead he calmly explained his strategy and accepted full responsibility for it.  He recognized that Versacorp's sale of advertising space on their pedicabs was a brilliant move and that he'd been outfoxed.  By meeting's end, Troy's 'buck stops here' attitude had burnished his reputation as a leader even in defeat.  Heidi, who had done no grievous wrong but who had never stepped up and made herself accountable, went down the elevator instead.

Lessons Learned