Awakening, 2nd edition (53 page)

Even saint Stella, in the company of seen-it-all Robert, even they’d gone the extra mile trying to manipulate public opinion. Sure, it was done for the sake of exposing the sly wrongdoer, but still that wasn ’t the cleanest way to do things. And , by the way, that mysterious wrongdoer still remained unexposed and as such would become a proud member of our powerful leadership team. Nice.

But Michael . . . Michael spoke his mind, made no alliances of any sort, bribed no one, kissed up to nobody, kept focusing on the business in hand instead of pleasing his ego and marketing his abilities, and by and large was not shouting “Me, me!” like some of the others. He had just been himself, that ’s all. And he took nine votes out of ten. Nine! With his low-key manner and a voice that was more often quiet than booming, never going into the spotlight unless circumstances justified it, not waving his hands, not calling anywhere, not promising anything . . .

And still, they voted for him, contrary to his own will, and asked him to lead them, stating that they could see no one else really being up to the job. How could this happen? He is a remarkable man, you have to give him that. You can just feel the power in him. Not the kind that makes Alex ’s muscles bulge. The real kind . The kind of power that you don ’t acquire by pumping iron. You can feel it in his voice, in his infinite confidence , truly rooted inside him, and in his steady , studying gaze. You want to listen to him, to know what he thinks, to hear him showing you the way . . .

And, most importantly, there wouldn ’t have been be a single thought to spare for a common man after what had happened that night. For example, look at Ed: punished and forgotten. And it ’s completely irrelevant what made him do what he’d done. This, my dear, is simply irrelevant. You ’ve never had such a woman before in your life and you will never have one again. So you should ’ve appreciated it, behaved appropriately and cherished the chance that was given to you only because of your position. If your management began suspecting something or you simply got cold feet, that ’s all right. Things happen. Just deal with it like a man. But to hang up? “Please don ’t call me ?” Who do you think you ’re talking to? It ’s amazing what one night can do to a dork . . .

Well, now it’s payback time. Whether Clark was ever suspecting anything doesn ’t matter anymore. Now he knows . But he knows not what happened, but what he was told. You see, there are many ways to spin a true story. He knows about your unprofessional interest, about your outrageous advancements, about your persistent attempts to seduce a workshop participant —and , finally, he knows about the harassment that took place on Wednesday night. Yes. The dreaded career-killing , life-altering H word was used. It is such a pity . . . the word just slipped. This gaffe was immediately followed by gasping, tight covering of the mouth, hesitation, some blushing and , finally, a very persistent unwillingness to discuss this topic any further. And indeed, there was no need for further discussion. It will be you who ’ll have to discuss it at length. Because , after all , you ’re not Michael. Plus , he would never sink that low. Call it double standards if you like.

So perhaps Randall won’t grin after all. Perhaps he would understand. Perhaps he would even appreciate the effort. His representative chose not to go with the flow. And this was a wise choice. His representative’s wisdom was not in trying to seize the power in the new conglomerate at any price. Nor was it in ignoring all personal feelings, ego and ambitions , and giving the position to the one who would be more capable than anybody else of putting the new organization on the right track and leading it down the right path. The path that would be advantageous and profitable for all the participating parties. And if that ’s the case, the voting was nothing short of a great success. Moreover, it was a great success in several aspects. Yes , Michael was given the steering wheel. But now he ’ll know who he ’s dealing with. Now he ’ll know better than to mess with her. He ’ll know that certain things won ’t be tolerated or forgotten. He ’ll know!

And at last, having found her peace of mind, Joan , with a light heart , closed the door behind her.

“ . . . Under the impression that becoming a winner had its benefits. Instead, I ’m going to be the last one to leave this building. Kevin has probably arrived home by now.”

Clark stopped the playback and set the sleek silver voice recorder on the desk.

“We had a very entertaining discussion. Please sit down, sit down . . . I really want you to listen to this and tell me what you think.”

Ed cautiously settled himself on a chair.

“You’ve recorded all of them?”

“Of course,” sighed Clark. “They left me no choice. Now, listen to this. I assure you, it ’s a fairly unique conversation. It ’s very long , so I ’m going to fast forward in some places.”

He clicked the play button again.

“ . . . So how does it feel to be the winner?”

“It’s nice, ” Michael’s slightly distorted voice said with some reservation. “At least there ’s a feeling that the five days were well spent.”

“In other words, had you not won, it would ’ve been a complete waste of time?”

“Considering the nature of your workshop, yes.”

Paper rustling.

“It sounds like we ’re in for a long discussion.”

“That’s for you to decide. This is your territory.”

“It is indeed. Let ’s start with simple questions.”

“Sure.”

“When did you realize that you were about to win?”

“As soon as I collected eight votes.”

A pause.

“You know that is not what I meant. When did you decide that your odds to win were good?”

“When you described our task. You know, you ’re right —your questions really are simple.”

“Is this a joke?”

“Why?” Michael ’s voice sounded surprised. “How could I have know n this before that?”

Clark clicked the button.

“From the moment he walked into this room , he was unbelievably self-confident. And without a hint of arrogance. The way he talked to me . . . I could talk like this to a child. Okay . . . let ’s fast forward here, this bit’s not that interesting . . . Nor t hat . . . Here. Listen to this.”

“ . . . Why do you think you won?”

“That one’s not a simple question.”

“Is it hard?”

“No. It’s naive. At least for you.”

“And why do you think it’s naive for me to ask that?”

“Because you already know the answer.”

“I would still like to hear your opinion.”

“All right. I won because I was stronger than everyone else. Isn’t that what you expected to hear?”

“It is.”

“See?”

Clark stopped the playback again.

“He always had the last word. And somehow I was under the impression he was doing that unintentionally. He wasn ’t trying to beat me in any way. In fact, it seemed that he had just allowed himself to relax after this week. Just to be himself. Know what I mean?”

Ed nodded, though looking rather puzzled.

“No, you don ’t know, ” Clark said good-naturedly, but with a slight trace of irritation. “Neither do I . . . Never mind, let ’s keep listening.”

“ . . . Something else. What do you think we want people to take away from our workshop?”

“Let’s see. That most managers lust for power, that being a manager is not the same as being a leader, that manager is a profession while leader is a vocation, that . . .” Michael quieted for a second, apparently thinking of other aspects . “That it ’s very important to learn to differentiate between a lust for power and a desire to have a successful career . . . Pretty much everything you talked about on Monday and today.”

“I never talked about an ability to differentiate.”

“Well, then, you meant it. I ’m sure I heard something like that —perhaps between the lines.”

“And what exactly did you learn here?”

“Nothing,” said Michael ’s voice without a single trace of emotion. “Although . . .” the voice faded away for a moment, “nope, nothing. Which doesn ’t mean in any way that the training is bad.”

“I know how good the workshop is. Otherwise we wouldn ’t have been celebrating our fortieth anniversary two years ago . But don ’t you find this a bit strange? Of all people, it is the winner who didn ’t learn anything here.”

“You know that there ’s nothing strange about it. You ’re not implying that all of us had the same skills and abilities, are you?”

“Your answers are not too helpful.”

“Perhaps you should try different questions.”

Clark turned off the voice recorder and sighed.

“I tried different questions. I tried differe nt approaches. No use. He had the upper hand all the time. Can you imagine that ? He had the upper hand with me . And , again, I know it sounds weird, but he wasn ’t trying to win in this conversation. You should ’ve seen him. He was relaxed, he was having a good time, as if he were sitting on a beach. He was smiling, he was curious . . . he was genuine . That ’s the problem. As I was speaking to him , I felt the way they all must ’ve been feeling when talking to me during the week. But it ’s not too surprising if you think about the whole situation. Did you want to say something?”

Ed nodded.

“You know that you were defensive, right? When you brought up the anniversary you wanted to be assertive, but it didn ’t come over that way.”

“Ugh . . . You noticed that. Yes, that was the first time, but it wasn ’t the last. Again, me being defensive when talking to a participant? Can you imagine that? Of course, now you can. All right, back to this fun.”

“ . . . A nother question for you : a re you pleased about the fact that you ’re the winner?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Is it your internal sense of accomplishment, praise from your management —something else?”

“Sense of accomplishment. Satisfaction, ” Michael ’s voice responded immediately. “I don ’t care much for my management ’s praise.”

“Are you suggesting that you don ’t care what the people who sent you here would think about your victory?”

“I wouldn’t—” Michael ’s speech was interrupted by a long yawning sound. “Excuse me. I wouldn ’t say that I don ’t care about it . If they look at this result and decide to promote me, of course it affects me. But their praise . . . t hat’s really not something I care about . I ’m not a pet.”

“But you do think a lot about your career.”

“No.”

“Really? This is interesting. So how come you ’ve grown so rapidly in five years ?”

“That’s a good question for my management.”

“All right. What attracts you in your job?”

“The work itself. And the paycheck.”

“Then why did you become a manager?”

“Not for the reasons you have in min d. I couldn ’t care less for these little power plays.”

Clark clicked the button once again.

“After these ‘power plays ’ I realized that no amount of open-ended questions would ever help getting anything useful out of him. I could keep asking him for hours, and still get nowhere. He was cutting off any line of questio ns I would come up with, he was not in the mood for bragging —or perhaps he never brags, he—a nyway, it seemed hopeless. I was the one asking questions, and yet he had complete control over the conversation. Think about it, someone controlling my conversation against my will? Yesterday I would ’ve said it was humanly impossible. So I jumped the gun. I should ’ve waited, I should ’ve thought of something else, but —a h, just listen to this.”

“ . . . Back from the workshop you plan to stay with your company —correct?”

“So far I like the place. Is this some kind of psychological test?”

Sounds of papers rustling.

“No, it ’s nothing like that. In a moment you ’ll see where I ’m going with this. Would you like me to tell you what our workshop was supposed to teach you?”

“Some manners?”

“We hoped that it would help you realize how futile, how pointless, how absurd any attempt to satisfy a lust for power at work is. That ’s it. No more, no less. This is all we ’ve been teaching—very successfully by the way—all these years. This is what we ’ve been very generously paid for. And every week a group of people leaves this place, having learned really well that lust for power is a disease that kills any corporation if not treated in a timely manner . Now what do you think —how successful were we this time?”

“That’s for you to tell. It ’s you who ’s conducted these postmortems with everyone.”

“Yes,” a sorrowful note surfaced in Clark ’s rec orded voice. “It is for me to know. Indeed, who would know this if not me. Even though it ’s you , the winner in this round . . . Here ’s another simple question for you : how many winners do you think we ’ve had so far?”

“Forty-one times fifty -six?”

“
Zero , ”
said Clark ’s suddenly quiet voice.

Ed stared at Clark in complete bewilderment.

“What else was I supposed to do?” Clark asked irritably, silencing the voice recorder. “What was I supposed to do? I had to find out what the hell had happe ned here ! And I did. I ’m still at a loss , though , as to how he managed to make me say that. Ah . . . let ’s just keep listening.”