Awakening, 2nd edition

by Kuili, Ray N.

  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.”

  “ . . . I’m the first one to win? That ’s nice to know.”

  “You don’t understand, ” Clark ’s baritone said sorrowfully. “You have won a contest that is impossible to win.”

  “Didn’t you just say—” Michael ’s voice began.

  “Impossible!” growled Clark ’s voice. “That’s how the workshop is designed. Do you realize what you ’ve done? Do you have any idea o
f what you ’ve done? No one is supposed to win here! It is impossible to win here and no one has ever done it! Do you understand this? For forty-two years—no one! Week after week, year after year I keep watching the same show over and over again: people agree on the rules, spend four days violating these rules , and o n the fifth day fail to choose the winner! They all fail at that! This is the crisis , this is the very foundation of the workshop, its core, its heart. The crisis is imminent, it is inevitable! There ’s always someon e who says first, “If it ’s not me, then it ’s no one!” And soon enough everyone else says it , too! For forty damn years they ’ve been saying it! Whatever they agree on, whatever they swear to do in public, whatever they write down, whatever they promise to the world, human nature takes over. Human nature is the real winner here —the one and only winner. But in your case they all of a sudden decided to vote! And vote for you ! As if—”

  Clark turned off the recorder and said gruffly:

  “That was the first time in my entire career. Spontaneous uncontrolled yelling? I don ’t know what could be worse than that . . . Do you?”

  Ed didn’t know. But he had some words of consolation to share.

  “Take it easy, ” he said. “Okay, we had a winner. So w hat? Sooner or later this was bound to happen. Everybody knows that. Don ’t we have enough jokes about this? I still remember reading Dolger ’s works, he expected to see one winner in ten years. It ’s a on ce—in -a -lifetime thing in this business. Isn ’t it better that it happened on your watch?”

  “Yes, it was bound to happen, ” echoed Clark, emphasizing ‘it .’ “Well, you ’re right, it did happen. And it would ’ve been helpful if—n ever mind, let ’s keep moving. As for Dolger, you probably should ’ve paid more attention while reading his works. True, he expected to see some winners, but he attributed this to a rare combination of circumstances. And , first of all, to the very rare occurrence of all the others being weak . Still, somehow , until today it was a pure theory. And the level of participants this time was higher than usual, you know that. Alex alone was a pure gem.”

  He clicked the p lay button and the voice recorder immediately produced a series of hurried indignant sounds. With a grimace of disgust , Clark clicked the fast—forward button.

  “ . . . So I won, you didn ’t expect it to happen, I made the news. Fine. But why are you so upset about it?”

  “Why? Because by winning you ’ve turned the whole theory upside down , that ’s why. This workshop is all about power. About true power. It ’s built with a single purpose in mind—to teach everyone who goes through it that there ’s no power inside a modern corporation! There ’s a ghost of power. A phantom. A smell of power. But not power itself.

  “It exists in politics, in the military , the police , organized crime, cults, religion. But not inside corporations. As far as true power is concerned , a manager is nobody. Power is when you tell someone to lick your boots clean and he licks them clean. Whimpers, but licks clean. Hates your guts, but licks clean. Or , even better , wants to do this with all his heart. That ’s power.

  “When you command someone: Go and die. And he goes and dies. Without asking you a single question. That ’s power.

  “When a schoolboy tells another schoolboy to bring him cash from home and the next morning he gets that cash—that ’s power.

  “But should a manager—no, scrap ‘manager ’—should a CEO try putting his boot anywhere near an employee ’s face, what do you think would happen? That employee would raise hell and make that power lord sorry he was ever born. He ’d leave the company the same day, he ’d sue them for harassment or whatever else he feels like suing for and they would end up paying him more money in settlement cost s than that CEO makes in five years. This is what our workshop is about!”

  “I understand.”

  “No, you don ’t! At least, not completely. Do you know that we ourselves don ’t call it ‘The workshop ?’ We call it The Shot . It ’s a vaccination against the worst disease in the world. It ’s our shock therapy for the most gifted, the most talented. This is a reality -check workshop, a workshop of purification before the journey to the top. It ’s a pail of cold water after a week of heated emotions. Our workshop encapsulates—”

  “I know what it encapsulates, ” said Michael ’s voice calmly .

  Clark’s voice coughed and broke off.

  “You gather together a dozen bright people who are used to giving orders. Hardened, dangerous, smart, with a well -justified feeling of self-importance. People who ’re very good at politics. People who ’ve been climbing up faster than the vast majority of their colleagues. People who have no illusions whatsoever about what happens between the middle of the pyramid and its very top. And you herd them into a trap. The truth is, the entire goal of selecting the leader is nothing but smoke and mirrors. The real task is entirely different: make people give up something they really want without having formal control over them. Without using any of the levers you ’re used to. Make them do it of their own free will.

  “By Friday, people realize —or at least some of them do —a nd , naturally , they say it ’s a bad deal and say no. At that point you enter the scene with your speech. Not the improvisation you gave us today —the real one. The one you ’ve just partially given me here. About true power, about the phantom, about the disease that kills companies. And towards the end you deliver the key message.

  “Had one of you, you tell them, accomplished that, it would ’ve been real power. The quintessence of power, so to speak. But none of you has been able to accomplish that since it is impossible to accomplish in these conditions. Barehanded, my dear Napoleons, with no titles or chain of command to back your orders , you can ’t even make someone blow his nose. The worst thing you can do to your subordinate is to fire him, which would immediately set him free from your power or , more precisely , from its imitation.

  “So once you’re back, p lay politics all you want, but every time you ’re doing that, ask yourself why. And if your honest answer is ‘Because I want more power ,’ recall this week, recall this very moment. Recall your encounter with true power and how dramatically it differed from its poor knockoff replica you face at work. And find something more useful to do. It will only be better for your career, not to mention your company. But if you still want true power—look somewhere else. Inside corporate walls it simply doesn ’t exist.”

  Michael’s voice quieted.

  “Yes,” slowly uttered Clark ’s voice. “You did get it right. That was . . . quite impressive.”

  “I know,” Michael ’s voice replied, still dispassionate. “And so I ’m asking again : why are you so frustrated about this? Forty years have already proved that your theory is flawless. Anomalies are unavoidable. If anything, they only prove the theory.”

  Ed smirked and gestured with significance at the recorder.

  “Especially because, ” said the recorder in Michael ’s voice, “this is not even an anomaly. I just exposed a weak link in your current implementation of the workshop. Fix it—and you will have another forty years of uninterrupted power exposure.”

  “A weak link?” Cla rk ’s voice asked perplexedly.

  “You’ve asked whether I intend to keep working for my company. This, of course, wasn ’t accidental.”

  “Accidental, ” Clark ’s voice echoed bitterly. “I ’m glad you ’ve brought it up. Accidental . . . For some reason every single one of your colleagues thinks that next week all of you will be called up to create some great conglomerate, some nebulous joint venture between your companies. Everyone thinks so. Everyone, but you . And they all think that the winner will be put in charge. In other words, you will be put in charge. They even talk about this—some hint, other s are more direct. Alex, for example, explicitly requested me to ignore the voting and put him in charge. He kept doing this until I informed him that I hadn ’t a clue of what he was talking about. Took another five minutes to convince him I was serious. He just wouldn ’t take my word
for it, until I showed him some papers.”

  “To Alex?”

  “Yes. Is there a problem?”

  “No. Did you convince him?”

  “Yes, I did. But whoever had convi nced him before me that the opposite was true achieved some very impressive results.”

  The voice recorder quieted.

  “Thus, it should come as no surprise to you that we would be very interested in learning why out of eleven people you are the only one who doesn ’t know anything abo ut this mysterious joint venture?” asked Clark ’s voice after a considerable silence.

  “I never said I knew nothing about it, ” came a calm response. “I only said that I had no intention of moving to another company. As for your question, the best person to shed some light on it would be Ed.”

  The button clicked.

  “Actually,” said Clark, setting the voice recorder on the table, “this is what I wanted to discuss with you.”

  He stared steadily at Ed, who looked as if he was about to fal l from his chair.

  “This, as well a couple of interesting facts that Joan has shared with me this afternoon.”

  The empty narrow road rushed towards the car. Alan had to force himself to slow down once in a while—the turns here were rather sharp. But every time , taking his foot off the gas was a struggle. What he really wanted was to push the pedal to the floor and go full throttle. He was doing exactly that whenever he had a chance and kept doing it so persistently that a black car, which at the beginning of the trip had occasionally appeared in the rearview mirror, fairly soon gave up and completely faded away, lost in the road turns.

  He also wanted to sing, and so he kept humming endlessly some cheerful upbeat tune that emerged from nowhere. The tune was of the sort that calls people to journey to the end of the world, to dive to the bottom of the sea, to climb tallest mountains and to otherwise engage in bright crazy adventures.

  And although Alan couldn’t remember where the tune came from, he knew precisely when it came to his mind—as soon as , instead of the hateful name , he wrote “Michael .” It was exactly at that moment that it tiptoed into his head. And it had been partying there ever since. But he didn ’t mind. Even some foolish jovial words were laying on top of it, also coming from nowhere. “Got news for you, got news for you, you moron go and screw yourself . . . No way you will be telling me how I should live my life . . .”