It isn’t often that I’ve performed an ‘intervention’, so that a project could actually progress. It is not in my nature to be manipulative, but there have been some folks that deserve to be ‘punished’, and with the pompous and self-important, I have found it relatively easy. I excuse myself because these individuals are self-deluded fools, and act as such when gently ‘poked’. Generally my interventions have gone undetected, but the results have been satisfactory. The story reflects such an intervention, but in this case is undoubtedly of the ‘divine’ variety, as in: ‘being of such surpassing excellence as to suggest inspiration by the gods’
While re-reading what I had originally wriiten on joebrown.org.uk about this story, I thought it was worth repeating that here, It is indeed a ‘different’ perspective, years earlier.
‘Brainstorming – a story.
Most of us have been in situations at our work, where someone has been parachuted in on us from above, given a position of responsibility and/or authority not merited by their ability. It is particularly galling for those of us to have to stand by and watch a project fail, powerless to intervene because of the nepotism invested in such situations. To intervene so, would be to invite self-destruction, something the job is certainly not worth. How can you change the course of events, without being radically altered yourself in such circumstances?
A phenomena in Chemistry, known as Catalysis, is used to bring about a significant change in a chemical process, whilst the catalyst itself remains (effectively) unaltered. I bracketed the ‘effectively’ because I feel the need to stress that contrary to popular belief, the catalyst is altered, though the final result may belie this. A succinct description of the process can be found in Wiki as: ‘Catalysts generally react with one or more reactants to form intermediates that subsequently give the final reaction product, in the process regenerating the catalyst.‘
Quite simply, the catalyst is effectively consumed in the process, only to be re-formed at it’s conclusion. Could a saviour in our office perform the same feat? And would they be the same person afterwards? Could they act alone?
A group of chemicals that increase the activity of catalysts are know as ‘promoters’. Could such a ‘promoter’ be found in our office, or close to it?
Would our catalyst and promoter survive ‘intact’ and unchanged by the events they brought about? The question doesn’t really need to be asked.
Fly too close to the Sun, and at the very least, some feathers on your wings will be singed.
Alice feels doomed. Faced with the delivery of a project for which she has been forced to use the services of an Architect who is less than useless. Her partner, Samantha, is deeply concerned at Alice’s drinking. Neither see a way through the crisis.‘
This short story contains explicit sexual references that some readers may find challenging and/or offensive. You have been warned.
Download/Read in Browser: Brainstorming
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