All eyes settled on Alicia. “My role is to put the team together,” she started, “assign the leadership, make sure there is consensus and that the project stays on track. Until today, this has been the Project Team Meeting.”

Alicia stopped. “I attend these meetings as part of this team, because there are often conflicting priorities based on the specific agendas each of you have. At the end of the day, I am accountable for the Phoenix Project, resolving the priority conflicts based on the latest data each of you brings to the meeting.”

Again, she stopped and looked around the room. “As the Division Manager, I abdicated my responsibility, as a manager, to a watered down decision-making protocol called consensus, in an effort to appease everyone and get everyone to play nice?”

There was shifting in the chairs as this meeting was getting closer to the truth.