Awakening, 2nd edition (13 page)

“Some recognize this burning desire inside of them very early, sometimes even in their teens. Others take their time and come to this realization in their adulthood. Some never realize it and serve it unaware of what ’s pushing them. But whenever its existence is acknowledged, people spare no effort in order to satisfy it.

“Every age had people like you. Had you lived two hundred years ago, you would ’ve become factory and estate managers. Half a millennia ago, you would ’ve tried to join the court of a nearby lord. And five thousand years ago , somewhere in ancient Egypt , you would ’ve striven to become priests, as it was the most realistic way to acquire some power. A manager is simply the most suitable place for fulfilling your needs in the fabric of modern society. The most suitable starting place, since appetite comes with eating . . .”

These words were intended for everyone. To be pondered over, analyzed, memorized. But not to be discussed lightly with others. There was a personal, very personal message hidden in these sentences. A message that was supposed to be taken very seriously. Ross, eager to make a good conversation out of it, obviously, didn ’t get it. But Stella did.

“I think they ’re about to begin, ” she suggested, although it was only five to nine. “Should we go back?”

And so they did.

“Very well,” Clark said when everyone was seated, and the murmur faded. “Hope you all had a good rest—today ’s group exercise will be exhausting. I assume you ’ve all made the calls you needed to make.”

Another weird thing about this place , Michael thought. Why did they have to prohibit all external communication? Only incoming calls and only through the hotel lines. As for your cell phones, would you please check them in, we ’
ll return them as soon as the group exercise is over. What are we going to do here? Whatever it is, it ’ll become clear in a moment . . .

“Your schedule is going to be very simple, ” Clark said. “In a moment , I will fill you in on your task. Then we ’ll have a brief Q&A session. This may take up to an hour. Immediately following it, the four-day group exercise will begin. It will be entirely up to you how to make the best use of your time.

“Your task is even simpler than your schedule. Today is Tuesday. By 5:00 p.m. on Friday , you have to choose a leader among yourselves, and every one of you must stand behind this choice. You can use any means to achieve this goal. If you don ’t like thi s task or are not interested in working on it you are free to leave our premises at any point.”

He broke off.

“Is that it?” Paul asked doubtfully, after a considerable silence.

“That’s it, ” confirmed Clark. He seemed to be enjoying their puzzled reaction.

“It can’t be that simple.”

“And yet it is. There ’s nothing else.”

“You mean no details?” pressed Paul .

“You’ve heard it all.”

“So what are we trying to achieve? What ’s the goal?”

“As I mentioned yesterday, the goal is to turn you into leaders.”

“What a strange way to do it, ” said Joan.

The bewilderment on her face was mixed with disappointment.

“If I’ve understood correctly , for the next four days you ’re not going to teach us anything? So we came all the way here to play games?”

Clark offered her a patient smile.

“This isn’t school. And this is not a game. The best way for an adult to truly learn something is through an experience. A personal , firsthand experience. No book in the world, no teacher in the world can ever have an impact on you that would be even remotely comparable to what a powerful experience can do. We ’re offering you a unique opportunity to acquire this kind of experience. That ’s why you ’ve been sent here. This is what your company is paying us to do.”

“So you don’t intend to intervene and consult?” Alan asked.

“Correct. We ’re only going to observe. In fact , that ’s why there ’re three of us—I could ’ve taught the workshop alone. As for intervention , expect zero from our side. We ’re absolutely neutral observers.”

“Absolutely neutral observers exist only in classical mechanics, ” Robert said firmly , “w hich nowadays is obsolete. What do you want to observe us for?”

“I’d think it ’s obvious. We owe a report on your performance to your employer.”

“Bingo!” Paul said loudly.

A murmur rolled around the room and gradually reached a crescendo .

“Can you tell us what ’s going to be in this report?” Robert asked casually.

“But of course. First of all, the ultimate result: h ave others chosen you as their leader or not ? Plus, we ’ll share our observations and provide an evaluation of your leadership potential. Granted, if you decide to opt out and leave today , there won ’t be much for us to share.”

“Wait a second, ” Brandon said with puzzlement. “What do you mean, “I f you leave today ?” What if we ’re all done by noon? It sounds like a simple thing.”

“If you complete the task today, someone ’s report will be very impressive. But, you ’re right ; in that case , you leave today and do get a report.”

“And what if we run out of time?” Kevin asked. “What if we never agree?”

“Then there will be eleven reports with rather unfavorable feedback.”

Kevin frowned.

“Are you trying to say that only the winner will have something nice in their report ? And everyone else gets an F? I hope you ’re not serious.”

“I am serious, but you ’re misinterpreting my words. Our feedback will be negative—somewhat negative—across the board only if you all fail to reach an agreement. From our perspective, this result would imply the lack of a single real leader in this class. But, as long as you pick a leader—and I ’m confident that you ’re fully capable of doing this—we ’ll have plenty of good observations to share. Not becoming the leader under these circumstances does not mean you have no leadership potential. On the contrary, it may become a great demonstration of your leadership maturity—it all depends on the situation. You don ’t have to win to get the experience you came here for. Moreover, failing—or choosing not to become a leader—may even result in more useful feedback for you.”

“That’s what I always tell my bad employees, ” Paul said sourly. “Sorry, your performance sucks, so no bonus for you this time. But wait! Behold ; h ere ’s a bit of constructive feedback that will help you big time.”

Clark didn’t seem to be moved by this analogy.

“And your point is?”

“My point is there ’s useful feedback and there ’s a fat bonus. They don ’t mix.”

“In this case , one doesn ’t preclude the other .”

“Could you elaborate on ‘A ny means ?’ What exactly does any signify in this context?” asked Michael.

“Precisely what it sounds like, ” Clark replied in a jolly tone. “
Any means. No limitations.
”

“Thank you,” Michael leaned back in his chair.

“No limitations?” repeated Ross. “On what? We can talk, we can write . . . What other means are you talking about?”

“Physical?” Alan guessed.

“Yes,” Clark confirmed. “Any means, including physical.”

The hubbub died immediately.

“This isn’t funny, ” Joan broke the silence.

“Very good,” Clark responded. “This isn ’t a joke.”

Joan looked at him as if he had just asked the group to crawl under their tables and bark.

“You’re teasing us, right? You really expect us to . . .” her beautifully shaped mouth curled contemptuously, “to punch each other? And you ’re going to observe? What do you think this is—a free wrest l ing show? You must be out of your mind to suggest such things .”

“I did not suggest anything along these lines, ” Clark answered in a very polite tone. “I only informed you about the fact that you are not limited in your choice of means. The one and only thing you ’re prohibited to rely on is the help of people not currently present in this room. As for the possibility of physical violence, it was suggested by this young man, ” his index finger pointed at Alan.

“But you hinted at it!” snapped Alan, as all eyes turned to him.

“No, I did not, ” Clark objected. “It was you r own interpretation of the word any .”

“What difference does it make?” Alex ’s voice broke the new wave of silence. “Somebody would ’ve asked about this anyway. And in any case , it ’s illegal.”

Clark shook his head.

“Wrong. There ’s nothing illegal about this proposition. It is as legal as the agreement you sign whenever you rent something , like a jet ski, for example . Agreements of this nature always render the renting company not liable for any damage you may cause to yourself or to others while using their equipment—including severe trauma and death. I ’m sure each of you will have signed this type of paper more than once in the past.

“A similar—perhaps more mildly worded—item was included in the agreement that each of you had to sign before arriving here. We are not responsible for any actions you take while participating in the class. In fact, the agreement included some verbiage that in theory made all of you not responsible for any damage caused to this facility or to other participants during this group exercise. This, of course, does not deprive you of your fundamental right to sue us or anyone else for any action you consider damaging in any way. And , again, I ’d like to emphasize that you have an option to leave this place at any moment.”

“Sounds like you ’ve got your . . . err . . . back covered, ” Paul concluded.

“Sort of,” Clark agreed.

“That’s a hard message to swallow, ” Kevin said with an uneasy look. “Just by mentioning this , you ’ve given some of us an unfair advantage.”

“Is there any other type of advantage?” Clark smiled back.

“Where can we rent some guns?” Paul asked .

Clark didn’t seem to be put off by these questions.

“Not here. No weapons of any sort allowed. No guns, no knives. Nothing.”

“What about some bats?” Alan had already overcome his frustration and now was quite playful.

Joan, however, was not in the mood for jokes anymore.

“Would you stop for a minute?” she said with noticeable irritation. “This doesn ’t make any sense. It ’s plain . . .” she stumbled for a second, looking for the right word, “plain silly. Just plain silly. Here ’s how you ’re framing it: Go beat the crap out of each other –and don ’t worry, we ’ll stay out of it. Oh , and by the way, feel free to sue whoever touches you. That will make true leaders out of you. How can you seriously say this? What did we come here for? For this nonsense?”

“Listen,” Clark said, still very patiently, “I didn ’t frame the exercise this way.
You did. All I said was that you could choose any means you wanted. For some reason , of all the possible means available to us to persuade someone , you have chosen to think of violence. So I guess it ’
s me who should be asking some questions. Why? Why are you so worried about this aspect? In this room , I see eleven intelligent , highly educated , socially responsible , mature and civilized managers. What are you afraid of? Why would anyone even think about physical abuse? Did I say I was going to add ten criminals into your group? I don ’t think I did. You find it silly to talk about this and so do I. In fact, I find it very odd, if not to say creepy .”

“Really,” Ross said cheerfully, “are we out of our minds? We ’re managers. Now if we were professional bouncers . . .”

“I know a professional bouncer, ” muttered Alex. “He would be bored to death by now if he were here .”

“All right, professional managers , ” said Chris , “l et ’s move on. I ’d say we ’re done with instructions.”

“Wait,” Brandon raised his palm. “I still don ’t get it. So we move on. And what ’s next? Do you expect us to sit here and shout , ‘Pick me! Pick me!?’ Aren ’t you going to give us some structure to work with, a process of some sort? Smells cheap, you know.”

An endless stream of patience emanated from Clark.

“No, this is not the case. Perhaps I wasn ’t clear enough. We ’ve already provided you with a solid structure. You simply haven ’t noticed it yet. It is completely up to you whether to sit and shout or to consider more efficient approaches. If you are a real leader, most likely you will think of a better idea. More questions?”

He looked around the room.

“No? Then excuse my cliché, but may the best man (or woman) win.”

With these words, he moved to the corner to settle comfortably at a small table. Ed was already sitting at the table across the room . A s for Arden, he had disappeared, apparently having concluded that two observers c ould handle it for now.

For a minute, everyone remained silent.

“Well,” said Chris finally, “let ’s get started. We have to start somewhere.”

“Agreed,” Kevin backed him, though not very confidently.

Chris gave him a supporting look.

“For starters , we have to decide how we ’re going to elect a leader. As Brandon said, we need a process. Without it we ’re stuck.”

“For starters, ” said Michael, “we ’d better push a few tables together. We can hardly see each other now.”

Chapt e r Three

They sat and looked at each other. This wasn ’t hard, for the three tables pushed together created a setting resembling the famous round table that King Arthur used to discuss business with his knights ; however , there was no king in sight. Nor was there any likelihood of royal presence anytime soon. The identity of the king of the hill was just as unclear now as it had been two hours ago. And yet no one seemed d isturbed by this fact anymore.

Just two hours ago, after Clark had announced the rules of engagement, half of the group had been puzzled while the other half had been vexed. Just two hours ago , Joan had been proclaiming angrily that this kind of cheap trick may work on high school kids, but not on adults. “Responsible, mature, civilized adults, ” Alan had added at that point. Just two hours ago , Paul had been saying how he had figured from the very beginning that this week was going to be a complete waste of time —but little did he know how quickly this would become obvious to everyone else , too . All of this had taken place just two hours ago.