Jeff went to work early, not sure what he was going to do. When Clare arrived, he sat down and replayed much of the conversation he had with Maurine the night before.

“In theory, it all makes sense,” she agreed. “But the practical reality we're dealing with here makes it easy to throw it all out and run the business like every other generic company out there.”

Jeff stood up, frowning. “What we need is to stop thinking about Ted Marchbanks and decide whether we're committed to this model. Whether it works in practice.”

“I don't know how to do that. And how we can prove it to Bobby?” Clare responded.

Jeff seemed to have a revelation. “What if we used it to figure out the Oak Ridge situation?”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean, let's look at the people involved and see if humble, hungry, and smart helps us understand what happened there and how to solve it.”

“Shouldn't we have Bobby here?”

Jeff winced. “Probably. If you think he can let go of the Ted thing for a half hour.”

“I can make him do that.”

And with that Jeff called Bobby and asked him to come by as soon as he arrived at the office.

“How about fifteen seconds?” Bobby asked with just a hint of bitterness in his voice. “I'm just down the hall.”

Three minutes later, he came in. “Sorry it took so long. I had to pee.”

Jeff was glad to see that some of Bobby's humor was beginning to resurface.

Bobby sat down and saw that Clare was standing at the whiteboard drawing a map of the Oak Ridge project teams, beginning with Nancy and Craig and including the foremen and key project managers below them, nine people in all.

“What are we doing here?” Bobby asked, with no hint of humor.

Jeff took a deep breath. “Bobby, we have to decide whether this humble, hungry, and smart thing works in reality or whether it's just a theoretical idea that makes our lives harder.”

Bobby sat up a little in his chair. “I like that. Let's do it.”

Clare went to the board and circled Nancy. “Okay, we've already agreed that Nancy isn't very good when it comes to understanding people, but she's not really arrogant or lazy. She's humble and hungry, but not smart. She makes a lot of messes that have to be cleaned up.”

Bobby nodded his agreement.

“So let's look at her team,” Clare suggested.

The executives reviewed the three people below Nancy, including the two foremen who left and had to be replaced, Pedro and Carl. As it turned out, Pedro was a clear team player, matching up with all three qualities. Carl, on the other hand, lacked hunger in a significant way.

“This is why Craig's guys were so pissed about falling behind,” Bobby announced. “I'll bet if we'd gotten rid of Carl, we could have kept Pedro.”

Jeff was glad that the assessments were making sense, but he hadn't won Bobby over quite yet. So he pushed harder. “Let's keep going, Clare.”

“Okay, let's talk about Craig and his team,” she announced. “How does he stack up?”

Jeff was glad to see that Bobby went first. “Craig's definitely hungry. He might be the hardest working guy I've got. I've never had to tell him to do something, and he's always thinking of how he can do more to help everyone else.”

Jeff weighed in now. “And do you think he's humble? He doesn't seem arrogant to me.”

Bobby nodded. “Very low maintenance. Doesn't want attention. Isn't a self-promoter at all. Sometimes I ignore him because there are rarely problems in his area.”

“Is he smart?” Clare asked.

Jeff looked at Bobby for an answer.

“Well, I'm convinced that the problems at Oak Ridge weren't his fault, if that's what you mean.” He paused, looking back at Jeff. “You've been dealing with him lately. What's your take?”

“I certainly don't think Craig is a world-class diplomat, like Ted. He calls things as he sees them, and he doesn't mince his words. But I like that. I'm curious about what his employees think of him.”

“They'd do anything for him,” Bobby said proudly. “Craig's guys love him. He knows when someone needs their butt kicked a little and when someone needs a pat on the back. The guy's a prince.”

Clare added, “Every year he gets one of the highest rankings from employees.” She paused for a moment as something occurred to her. “You know, if Craig ever left, I bet a dozen or more people would follow him wherever he went.”

Jeff moved the conversation forward. “Okay, Craig is smart, and he's a team player. Let's keep going. What about his people?”

Clare circled the next name on the board. “Okay, what about Brandon?”

Clare knew Brandon, one of Craig's foremen, and was providing her own insights into his level of hunger, when suddenly Bobby interrupted.

“Hold on a second.” He seemed almost angry, but not quite.

Jeff and Clare looked at him.

“What are we, idiots?” Bobby asked loudly.

Jeff was suddenly preparing to go toe-to-toe with Bobby, until he explained.

“Why don't we hire Craig?”

“He already works here,” Clare explained.

“Come on, Clare. I mean, why don't we make him part of our team?”

Jeff was more than a little surprised. “Craig?”

“Yeah, why not?” Bobby responded.

“I guess I just never thought of him as someone at that level.”

Bobby shot back. “Hey, the guy knows the business backward and forward. So, if you're serious about humble, hungry, and smart, he would be a no-brainer.”

Jeff couldn't tell if Bobby was serious or challenging Jeff's commitment to the model.

Thankfully, Clare weighed in. “He's just so different than Ted. I mean, one guy ran a sixty-million-dollar division of a company and has years of experience working at high levels, and the other guy. . . .”

She paused, and didn't finish the sentence.

Bobby did. “And the other guy has been here proving himself for ten years and we know that he's all about teamwork.”

Jeff looked at Bobby. “Do you think he's got the maturity? Can he handle a higher level of stress and more balls to juggle?”

Bobby thought about it. “I'd say ‘no’ if you meant that he had to go work for another company without any help. But here, with our help, I have no doubt that he'd be fine.”

“Really?” Clare asked.

Bobby didn't hesitate. “Absolutely.” And then he said something that closed the deal. “And you know he'd fit in with us, much better than Ted Marchbanks.”

Jeff was shocked. “So you agree that Ted wasn't an ideal fit?”

Bobby shrugged in a guilty way. “I had my doubts about his humility. But when you're desperate—”

Clare finished his sentence for him. “You do stupid things.”