The Waterline Model (Snorkel Before You Scuba)
Diagnose team problems from the top down: structure and dynamics, not the people, cause 80% of issues.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 94%
A diagnostic model for figuring out why a team isn't working. A team is a boat trying to reach its goals; four layers sit under the waterline (structural, dynamics, interpersonal, intrapersonal). The rule is to snorkel before you scuba: start at the shallow structural layer before blaming the people. Use it whenever performance or friction problems appear.
Origin
Molly Graham learned the waterline model (which she credits to an unnamed business book) while leading 75-day wilderness expeditions for the National Outdoor Leadership School out of college, and now teaches it in her Glue Club community.
Core principles
- 01A team is a boat; goals are the destination and conditions make it harder or easier to arrive
- 02The four sub-waterline layers, shallow to deep: structural, dynamics, interpersonal, intrapersonal
- 03About 80% of team problems are structural or dynamics issues, not people issues
- 04A manager's single most important job is clear roles and clear expectations
How to run it
- 1
Start at the structural layer (snorkel)
Check goals, vision, roles, and expectations first. Ask whether goals are clear and whether each person knows the number they own.
Pro tip Your only goal as a manager, if you do nothing else, is clear roles and clear expectations.
Watch out Resist the instinct to dive straight to the people; that's scuba, not snorkel.
- 2
Check the dynamics layer
If structure is clear, examine how the team works together: culture, decision-making, and conflict resolution.
- 3
Only then look at interpersonal and intrapersonal
Descend to relationships between two people, and finally to challenges within one individual, only after ruling out the shallower layers.
- 4
Re-clarify with two-way dialogue
When you find a structural gap, ask the person what they think their job is and what number they were hired to drive, then realign. Expect to 'redescribe the elephant' many times.
Pro tip Open with 'here's what I'm seeing, tell me what's going on for you' before asserting.
Watch out You'll feel like a broken record; people rarely heard you the first 43 times, so you must keep restating.
In the wild
On a listening tour taking over a team, Molly asks what each person thinks their job is. Often their picture differs from hers: 'you described an elephant and they spat out a tiger.' Realigning ('we're building an elephant, you're in charge of the trunk') fixes performance.
→ In a meaningful share of cases, simply re-clarifying roles and expectations resolves what looked like a performance problem.
Common mistakes
Jumping straight to the people
Blaming individuals first ignores that most problems come from a confusing structure they're operating inside.
Assuming you were clear enough
Leaders think they communicated roles once; people need the same message repeated many times to actually internalize it.
Is it for you?
Best for
Managers taking over a team or diagnosing recurring friction and performance issues
Not ideal for
Clear cases of individual misconduct or capability where the structural layer is already unambiguous
From the transcript
“you snorkel before you scuba”
“80% of problems on teams actually happen because of structural issues or dynamics issues”
“your only goal as a manager if you do nothing else is clear roles and clear expectations”
From the episode
The high-growth handbook: Molly Graham’s frameworks for leading through chaos, change, and scale