“What’s wrong is that you’re down there, and we’re”-his gesture encompassed all four observers on the knoll-“up here! I told you before that it’s our job to work with you, to find ways to make you effective, not to stand up here and shake our heads while you flounder around getting discouraged by trial-and-error learning. If anything, I owe you an apology for putting you through that first round, but I felt it was necessary to prove a point. You have my promise it’s the last time you’ll face an exercise alone.”
The company responded with thunderstruck silence as Phule came down off the knoll to join them on their own level, the rest of the observers trailing uneasily in his wake. Their expressions ranged from confused to disgusted, but there was little they could do but follow Phule’s lead.
“Okay now,” the CO said, motioning for those in the front rows to kneel down so those behind could see and hear, “I told you before, we’re a team. All of us. The first mistake was that you were trying to run this course as individuals. There are obstacles out there, as well as in anything we’ll ever want to do, that can flat out beat any one of us. But together, working as a team to help each other and to think out any problem, there’s nothing we can’t do. Nothing! Accept that as a given. Burn it into your minds and hearts that we can do anything. Then all that remains is working out the how, and that’s where the team comes in.”
The company was hanging on his words, caught up in his certainty and wanting him to be right.