The Corporate Chalice

Every Grand Final winning player knows that unforgettable feeling as they lift up high the Premiership Cup signifying a lifetime achievement of sporting success. An injured player quickly forgets the pain and suffering they may have experienced in the game, or during the season, once their hands eagerly embrace the coveted item. One could say, it is analogous to a religious experience where all wounds and maladies are quickly forgotten.

The Premiership player carries the memory of this glorious event with them for the rest of their lives and they are similarly revered and immortalized by their sporting club fans, family and friends. Their legend status also accompanies them into their business and private life wherever they may go throughout the sporting globe.

Now let’s liken this Premiership Cup to the revered Holy Grail, or Golden Chalice, a cup that brings to the cup holder life changing powers.

Many a sporting club supporter that has the joyous opportunity to view their team’s winning cup, even if it’s locked away in a protective glass cabinet, is wooed by the powerful winning aura that adds a sense of pride, enjoyment and loyalty to the beholder. A team with a plethora of cups on display is deemed to be more powerful and impressive than their competition, and the copious silverware stache facilitates, motivates and maintains supporter club loyalty.

So why is it that most businesses have no such display that entices and stimulates employee commitment to the organization via its corporate achievements and victories? There are typically no such physical cups or chalices, or analogous symbols to improve and facilitate morale. Unfortunately business success is commonly celebrated by a few senior managers with little spoils of triumph passed on to the lower-level troops who may have been key in achieving the fruitful outcome.

So, if you are a business leader reading this blog post, what is your Holy Grail? How will you celebrate and share it with your employees when you obtain it? Do you have one or more cups that you can put on display to inspire current and future employees that demonstrate a longer-term legacy of achievement? Go on, let all employees drink from the cup as the taste will be beneficial to all, and will most definitely not be forgotten.

The Retirement Rebirth

The year is 2125 and I have now been in cryogenic retirement for the past 100 years. I vividly recall my last day in the corporate office when my career became literally frozen in time.

As my mind starts the thawing process, I wonder what awaits me as I re-enter the workforce. The first question that puzzles me is, why now? Yes, I have been “on ice” for the past century, and for what reason should I be awoken from my forced corporate sabbatical slumber?

I awake to see a room full of excited business people in casual clothing gesticulating around me as my corporate consciousness quickly regains my innate faculties. They gleefully welcome me into their relaxed business world with sighs of relief and wonderment.

I look intently at their faces with puzzlement and seek an answer to my question.

Over the following day, I learn their predicament.

The Goldfish:
These employees have the attention span of a goldfish. Owing to the memory dilution influences of prolonged social media, they cannot concentrate for a period longer than 3 minutes. They all wear name tags as their interpersonal recognition is essentially non-existent which makes teamwork an impossibility.

Strategic Analysis:
Their reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) has eroded all their skills of analysis and intuition. They cannot think for themselves and have become slaves to avatar personas.

Hygiene:
As they don’t need to frequent the corporate office, they work from home, and don’t see the need for personal grooming as their work life experiences are completely virtual.

So why was I awoken?

Apparently, my name was found in a time capsule buried in an old building that was made redundant in the year 2025. The same year in which I left my employer and commenced my period of forced retirement hibernation. The finder of this archaeological treasure glanced through all the archives that highlighted how workers in the past thought for themselves, were innovative and creative. It was reported that those of yesteryear apparently relied on our experience, our knowledge and used technology to complement our reasoning and logic, instead of being beholden to it.

A search commenced and I was unearthed and brought into the present (my future).

I looked around the room and immediately thought, it was time to restart my corporate life once more. As the saying goes, “everything old is new again”, and I was ready.