After identifying himself as the conductor of the orchestra, he then expresses one of the team’s core values. He deliberately picks a senior staff member, operations manager Carsten Jeppesen, to make the point. ‘If in our orchestra Carsten isn’t playing his violin properly it is my responsibility to come along and say, “Look, Carsten, we need to have a chat.”
‘What I mustn’t do is speak to Mario [Pafundi] and say, “You know what, Carsten’s ****ing this up,” because then Mario might say, “Yeah, he’s always ****ing things up,” and instead of my dealing with the problem we make it worse by talking to other people, who in turn talk to even more people.’
So, in this team, *****ing about colleagues will not be tolerated. Every suggestion is coated with a sense of what seems entirely reasonable. ‘We have come here without our wives, partners, children, and now for the next three weeks we have to make sure that we don’t allow our personal lives to affect our jobs.
Inside Team Sky, page 24