He stared at the pallid corporate faces and clicked to slide
four. He had done this presentation to middle managers within this organisation for
over five years. He recognised their types without even having to think.
‘The Head Nodders’, showing their agreement and attempting
to engratiate themselves with the presenter. ‘The Serious Faces’, pulled to
show how hard they were concentrating and taking it in. The ‘I know all this,
did it at business school,’ sitting back in their chairs glancing round smiling
to intimidate the others.
This presentation was all about taking risks, thinking differently,
encouraging new ideas and new approaches – ‘Let’s Not Be Risk Averse’. A
sentiment echoed in all major corporates. ‘We need new ideas, we need our staff
to innovate, we want innovation, we don’t fear risk.’
Of course it was all bollocks and he knew it. The large
corporates were totally risk averse. They wanted safe predictable profits. Let
the smaller companies take the risks, ‘if it works we can copy it or buy them
out’ was the mentality.
Slide ten of the PowerPoint clicked on. He turned to look at
the words and read them to the assembled
Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t
that where the fruit is? ~Frank Scully Reader
Yes, risk taking is inherently
failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing-taking. ~Tim McMahon
Many great ideas have been lost
because the people who had them could not stand being laughed at. ~Author
Unknown
He turned back to them and stared. In the silence they stared back at
him. Who was he giving this lecture to?
He reached for the mouse and clicked out of the presentation mode. He
opened up his email account and started a ‘new message’, filled the ‘To’ box
with the name of the Chief Exec and ‘cc’d’ the Head of HR.
As they watched he typed his resignation letter and pressed send. Thirty
Middle Managers all tried to understand the message behind this action, how it
fitted in the presentation. Even after he had taken his jacket and left the
room they sat, waiting to be told the presentation was over. They weren’t going
to take a risk.
