Jimenez succeeded in Wichita not because of monthly chats, weekly baseball games or Keller, but because he created an environment conducive to achieving the results he needed. This achieved two key goals: it enabled employees to develop cross-functional solutions and it fostered a sense of ownership and commitment. Jimenez misunderstood what made the Wichita project successful. Instead of trying to create circumstances conducive to developing site-specific solutions in Lubbock, he simply imported the methods that Wichita employees had created. Before a group can achieve the synergistic performance that Jimenez is looking for, it must meet three preconditions. First, team members must approach the task at hand with the motivation to work cross-functionally and with the confidence that they can produce effective solutions. In Wichita much of the motivation came from the evident performance crisis. Everyone in the plant knew it was underperforming, and there is no stronger motivation to act than a survival crisis. The confidence came from Keller's presence. His long history with the company, respect for colleagues, and reputation as a successful problem solver almost certainly reassured employees that a turnaround could happen. Second, team members must appreciate each other's perspectives and refrain from blaming each other for problems they may encounter. Before Jimenez's team-based productivity project, the engineers and operations people at the Wichita site did not understand or appreciate the other party's contributions. Jimenez and Keller held monthly meetings to discuss problems and resolve them. This was an excellent mechanism for providing information on the different contributions and challenges of the various sides. Furthermore, their active intervention during those meetings helped stop the accusations. Finally, team members must create shared visions of the problems and shared approaches to solving them. These commonalities must be acceptable to all if they are to provide the core for new ways of doing things. Monthly problem chats were the beginning of the process of developing acceptable approaches. Corporate softball games provided a powerful way for your brain and muscles to develop a shared image of your establishment and your goals, as well as to get to know people on the other side and appreciate their perspectives. These changes set the stage for Wichita so that SPITS teams were required to successfully deliver innovative, high-quality suggestions, even as they required employees highly committed to both the business and the plans. This commitment came because employees were involved in the processes.