Listen: How to debug a team that isn’t working: the Waterline Model

Listen: How to debug a team that isn’t working: the Waterline Model

From Lenny's Reads by Lenny Rachitsky

March 3, 2026 · 13 min

About this episode

Molly Graham discusses the Waterline Model to diagnose team performance issues without blaming individuals.

When their team underperforms, most managers jump straight to blaming people. Molly Graham—who's worked alongside Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, and Chamath Palihapitiya—explains how that's one of the biggest leadership traps there is. In this episode, she shares the Waterline Model: a diagnostic model to help uncover the real source of team problems, before touching an org chart. In this episode, you'll learn: • Why blaming people for structural problems is one of the biggest leadership mistakes • The four layers of the Waterline Model, and why that order matters • Why you should always "snorkel before you scuba" • How self-preservation can be a rational response to a faulty environment • How to make clean, decisive calls when you finally reach the individual layer — References: • "Give Away Your Legos": https://review.firstround.com/give-away-your-legos-and-other-commandments-for-scaling-startups/ • Glue Club: https://glueclub.com/ • Molly Graham: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mograham/ • Molly Graham on Lenny's podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twzLDx9iers • Lenny's Product Pass: https://www.lennysproductpass.com/ — Read the full newsletter…

People in this episode

Host: Lenny Rachitsky

Guest: Molly Graham

Topics covered

  • team performance
  • leadership
  • diagnostic models
  • Waterline Model
  • organizational structure
  • management strategies

Keywords

  • team underperformance
  • leadership mistakes
  • Waterline Model
  • snorkel before you scuba
  • self-preservation
  • organizational problems

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Lenny's Newsletter, Glue Club, Lenny's Product Pass

Books & works: Give Away Your Legos

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