Awakening, 2nd edition (15 page)

They touched lightly on the upcoming elections, but at the first sign of different political views , Chris interrupted the potentially dangerous discussion and suggested they pick another subject. Everyone agreed. Instead of politics , they went on to discuss the recent tax cut, and there were no disagreement s of any sorts.

With taxes and
crème brûlée, the lunch came to an end .

“Back to writing?” Ross asked enthusiastically once they had all returned to their seats in the boardroom .

“That we can do, ” answered Robert. “Now, remind me again, when are we going to start picking our fearless leader?”

The question brought a flabbergasted expression to Ross ’s happy round face.

“Isn’t that what we ’ve been doing all this time?” he asked.

“All this time , we ’ve been writing, ” Robert answered politely. “Started at 9:00 a.m., still at it now.”

“Yeah,” Ross mumbled, losing his enthusiasm quickly. “Guess you ’re right.”

“Michael,” called Joan. “You started it off , didn ’t you? So tell us what ’s next.”

Ross livened up.

“Right! How does this help to define the process , Michael ?”

Michael looked at him with interest, as if Ross had just proposed he sing a song.

“The process?” he asked . “You must ’ve gotten it all wrong. I didn ’t try to define the process.
You did. Chris did, Alan did. As for me, I thought it ’
d be interesting to talk about the qualities of a leader. Can ’t say that I expected us to spend half the day on it, but it ’s been rather educational.”

“
Half the day , ”
Chris said , “being the point here; w e ’ve only got four days. Let ’s wrap this up.”

“No problem, ” Michael agreed. “We ’ve covered it well enough.”

“I thought it was a good discussion, ” noted Kevin.

“No argument about that, ” Chris replied. “But it ’s time we get down to business.”

“You mean back to the process discussion?” clarified Joan.

Chris nodded.

“Back to the process.”

He suddenly rose—sturdy, confident, with a proud, striking face.

“Whether we like it or not, without a process we ’re going to lose. All of us. Literally ; there will be no winner. They, ” he pointed back to the far corner, his eyes still on the group’s faces, “are counting precisely on this happening . Trust me ; they ’ve calculated it well in advance. They thought we would just beat around the bush and would never dare to call a spade a spade. But we ’re better than this. We know we need a process. And we need it by tonight.”

He looked around the room demandingly.

“This is our first real decision. Unless we define the process today , we can all pack our stuff and go home this very second. I hope everyone understands this. Until we have a process , we ’re stuck, no matter how things look. So . . . do we all agree that our top priority is defining the set of rules we ’re going to use to pick a leader? Looks like it. Alex . . . did you have something to say?”

“Nope, you’re good.”

“Fine. Do we all agree that we must define this set of rules today ? Seems like we do. Concerns ? Objections? No? Then from now on , we concentrate on this topic only until we have our process defined. Now, who has a specific proposal on what this set should include?”

At first, the flow of proposals was anything but impressive. There was Alan ’s proposal to have everyone describe how he would lead an imaginary company. The proposal was met with a loud “Hmm ,” a supporting nod from Michael, and Chris ’s “That ’s good . That ’s good . . .”

There was Joan’s proposal to share some stories about tough decisions they ’d had to make in the past. There was Kevin ’s proposal to describe what everyone had learned during the last year. There was the somewhat controversial remark from Robert, who said that what they were going to discuss during these four days was completely irrelevant and the only thing that mattered was the voting process. This comment didn ’t draw much support; however , the word voting quickly became the key word, and five minutes later proposals began to flow in.

However, about an hour later, it became apparent that all of them were proposing more or less the same idea. The domin ant theme was to have everyone go through one or more tasks then pick the winner using a simple voting process. “Remember, no self-voting! This is critical!” Kevin kept insisting. Nobody argued with him on this, though it wasn ’t clear what made him emphasize this point so passionately. The plot was thickening.

There was an alternative, though, proposed by Ross.

“What if we drop common tasks altogether?” he asked. “We leave the voting part and let people choose themselves what to focus on. All you need to do is to stand up and say , ‘If you elect me I ’m going to do this and that.’ It ’ll be just like real elections.”

“No kidding, ” Brandon grumbled. “Just like real elections.” Ross ’s face became so puzzled that Brandon elaborated , “Some people promise what they ’ll do if elected, while others vote for them.”

“And?” Ross asked, still confused.

“And both sides know there won ’t be a damn thing done once the elections are over.”

This remark put the discussion about an alternative way to an untimely end.

“All right,” Chris concluded finally with satisfaction. “We ’re done with the big picture. Now let ’s get down to the dirty details. Tasks, my friends. We need a list of tasks. Alan, if you don ’t mind, would you please take care of writing them down? I ’d do it myself, but your writing is so much better than mine.”

And once again Alan stood by the flipchart, although this time he hesitated even longer before getting up. And once again proposals and recommendations flew in.

Chris paced the room with wide strides , catching every word, clarifying, articulating, arguing, convincing. He talked to everyone at once and to each one personally ; he didn ’t let people sit silent, he slashed the air with his wide palm, leading and shaping the conversation in every possible aspect. He was obviously in his element and even Alan gradually lost his somewhat visible frustration and shone as Chris shouted out , “Perfect! Pe-errfect!”

But another two hours later, when the firmly written words covered a couple of sheets, everyone ’s excitement began to subside. The tasks written on the flipchart weren ’t bad. In fact they were good , and combined together represented a very solid way to evaluate a manager. The problem lay somewhere else.

Robert put it laconically, answering, “Time,” in response to Ross ’s half-rhetorical question , “So is anything missing here?”

Time. They had a catastrophic shortage of it. More precisely, they didn ’t have it at all.

It would’ve taken at least two days for someone to complete all the tasks on the list. Applying some very simple math , it was easy to convert this number of days into a completely unmanageable twenty-two . All attempts to identify one or two main tasks led to miserable results that satisfied no one. Despite all the efforts, the stubborn twenty-two showed no intention of turning into four. (“Forget four! It ’s three, only three!” Joan argued fiercely .) Once the situation had been fully understood, whatever remained of the initial enthusiasm evaporated completely. They were locked in a trap, which had been waiting for them patiently from the very beginning. It was a very miserable and depressing place in which to be , and its stale air had the most devastating effect on the mood. Occasional proposals emerged every so often , only to be discussed lethargically and to end up being written in the same lethargic manner on the flipchart, but the momentum had been lost completely. Even Chris had lost some of his spirit and kept playing the part he assigned to himself rather on autopilot.

“This is hopeless, ” Stella sighed finally. “It ’s a dead end.”

“And your alternative is ?” asked Chris, his voice sounding a bit hostile.

Stella lifted her arms.

“I don’t have one. I only know we need something else.”

“That’s a no-brainer, ” Brandon said with disappointment.

With this statement, he had hit the poor nail on the head. A heavy silence shrouded them for a few long moments.

And then Michael spoke. Not loudly, but not quietly either —without Chris ’s forcefulness, and yet firmly and confidently.

. . . Let’s keep it simple. We ’ve had the solution in front of us for a while, but it has been too simple, too obvious for us to pay any attention to it (this statement definitely turned everyone ’s attention if not to the miraculous solution, the n at least to Michael). Every single one of us can easily describe how he or she would manage an imaginary company. And , by the way , this is not a bad idea. It just doesn ’t help us achieve our goal of choosing a leader. Same goes for the idea of conducting an imaginary job interview. Or coming up with a stressful situation that would test our abilities to keep composure and make right decisions under the pressure. I have to say , though, Alan, that I ’m not sure that all of us would be very good at this, so it was definitely a worthy proposal.

But let’s recall what we ’ve been tasked with. We need to pick a leader . It ’s not about one ’s theoretical behavior in some imaginary situation. Nor is it about one ’s imagination or acting talent. I think you ’d agree that conducting an impressive imaginary job interview in front of ten people requires certain skills that may not be as critical for a leader’s everyday work. We ’re choosing a leader based on the kind of person we see here, in this room. Based on what this person has learned from his past, based on who he—or she—is today , and based on whom he or she wants to become tomorrow. Based on this person ’s past, present and future.

We have three days. Let’s dedicate them to these three components. Tomorrow we’ll spend the day looking at the past ; e veryone will have a chance to tell others how he or she grew to be the person we see here today. Let ’s all share why we decided to become managers, what attracted us to this profession, where we began, what mistakes we made . By the way, Joan, I really liked your proposal—we ’ve all made our share of stupid mistakes, and whoever denies it is probably still making them frequently to this day. Let ’s talk about the lessons we ’ve learned from making these mistakes, and how we ’ve been applying this knowledge. And by tomorrow evening , all people in this room will have present ed their past—only what they want to present and the way they want to present it . . .

Michael spoke calmly, but not monotonously, moving his eyes from one face to another, sometimes smiling, sometimes growing completely serious. As if he knew that nobody would try to interrupt him, to stop him. And they were listening: Brandon , nodding in agreement ; Kevin pondering over something ; Alex sitting with an impenetrable face ; Stella squinting and swinging her leg ; Chris splitting for some reason his attention between Michael, Robert and Brandon . And from the far corner , Clark was attentively observing the monologue.

As for Michael, he spoke and whatever everyone thought during his speech, nobody was making the slightest attempt to interrupt him.

. . . We’ll spend Thursday talking about the present. About our jobs (no details, of course) and about ourselves as managers. About the challenges we face and the ways we deal—or fail to deal—with them. About the things we like and the things we despise. About our worries and happy moments, our victories and failures. About the things that make those who work for us—or those we work for—like or hate us. About everything that in one way or another makes up our everyday lives.

And, finally, Friday will be the day we look at the future. On that day , we ’ll be talking about our aspirations, assuming of course that we all aspire to something higher. What we want to achieve. Why. When. How. Where. What steps we plan to take tomorrow. And what steps we took yesterday. What can slow us down. What can help us. The w here, why and how of our professional lives.

Three days of short—thirty- to forty -minute—speeches. To some degree, confessions. Or skillful self-promotions; it all depends on how you look at it. Just like Brandon proposed, we will determine the order of speeches by a simple draw. You can listen. You can take notes. You can ask questions . Just wait till the end, since everyone should have an opportunity to say everything he or she wants to say. We ’re going for a mix of the hard boundaries and complete freedom of speech.

Next, the voting. The same scheme that we discussed an hour ago. There ’re only two rules.

One: Everyone must vote.

Two: You ’re permitted to vote for anyone but yourself.

It’s that simple. And , last but not least , the winner. Only one, precisely like they told us. That ’s it.

Michael went silent.

“What took you so long?” Chris asked pathetically after a brief pause. “That ’s exactly what I ’ve been asking for. Man, I ’ve been begging for it! We could ’ve saved a couple of hours, had you been prompter.”

Michael smiled.

“Things sound right when they ’re said at the right time.”

Chris shook his head wearily.

“The right time for this proposal was two hours ago. Anyhow, this is great stuff.”

He looked around again and asked, “Any comments? Thoughts? Concerns?”