The irritating patterns of senior teams, with Joel Casse

About this episode

Joel Casse discusses the behavioral issues within senior teams and how to address them.

Episode Summary Joel Casse spent over two decades inside large global organisations — most recently as Nokia's Global Head of Leadership Development — watching senior teams up close. What he found wasn't a talent problem. It was a behaviour problem: packed agendas with no room for the team itself, leaders competing to showcase expertise rather than build on each other, and decisions perpetually kicked offline. The conversation explores why this happens — egos, function-first loyalty, a bias for action that keeps teams stuck above what Roger Harrison calls the "waterline" — and what actually shifts things. Joel's tool is the balcony move: stepping out of the discussion to name what he observes. One quiet observation ("I've counted eight 'let's take it offline' in 20 minutes") became a two-hour conversation about how that team made decisions. Slow to go fast. Key Themes & Takeaways Most senior teams debate (I'm right, you're wrong) rather than dialogue (let's understand each other) — and almost never ask genuine questions The waterline model: teams focus on task and content; relationships and process stay hidden until something breaks The SPQA framework: Situation → Problem →…

People in this episode

Hosts: Dan Hammond, Pia Lee

Guest: Joel Casse

Topics covered

• senior teams
• leadership development
• team dynamics
• decision making
• organizational behavior
• accountability

Keywords

• senior teams
• leadership
• behavior problems
• decision making
• team dynamics
• accountability
• waterline model
• SPQA framework

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Nokia

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