possible access to a telephone-had never been replaced with a new mission when it was essentially accomplished in the late 1960s. To his credit, John Walter sensed this and brought in Jim Collins, who had written the business best-seller Built to Last,3 to help his sen- ior team articulate a "higher purpose" for the company. What they came up with was not poetry, but it had an element of nobility and decency worthy of AT&T's employees who still believed in a "spirit of service." It was "to improve the quality of people's lives around the world through communications." Unfortunately, few employees ever saw it, and when Walter left, it was forgotten. Tough Calls Horizontal Communications The task of preparing AT&T's employees for life without AT&T Broad- band and C. Michael Armstrong was too important to delay until the board had appointed a successor. In fact, while the CEO is, for many employees, the personification of the company, it's their immediate boss that people listen to for evidence that things will really change. But in most corporations, first-line supervisors are often the forgotten managers. Every survey identifies them as employees' preferred chan- nel of communication. But in most companies, they know as little as the people they are paid to supervise. AT&T actually had a good story to tell in 200I: While revenue was declining across the industry, customer satisfaction was improving; there were signs that growth was returning to our data and profes- sional services businesses; our consumer local business was finally gaining traction in several states; and our network reliability had never been better. Grand statements of direction echoing off marble walls would have to await the appointment of a new CEO, but there was a crying need for a simple baselining of AT&T's strengths after the Broadband spin- off. Ironically, Noski was taking this story to the investment commu- nity in a series of analyst meetings, but because the ever-politically attuned Dorman was afraid of appearing presumptuous, we fail