There they were. Two managers glaring at each other. Teeth clenched. Hands tightened into fists. Barely breathing. Exchanging noxious words of personal attack.
The issue? Whose people were more responsible for a very angry major client threatening to pull all her business due to late delivery and poor performance.
I and several other people watched in stunned silence as the fight escalated. We made a few attempts to calm them down and address what could be done to fix things and keep the client, to no avail. Accusations kept flying. We backed off—for our own safety. In what seemed like hours but was actually only a few more minutes, the warring parties stalked off in opposite directions leaving lots of blame but no solution in their wake.
