‘The show must go on,’ was the first thought of the Number as it woke up early in the morning. It was raining outside and other numbers were already moving back and forth in the rain, each following its or rather others’ objectives. The numbers were neither ‘she’ nor ‘he’, it became unsexy to be identified by one’s own gender. Or not up-to-date, or politically incorrect, to say it differently than ‘sexy’, a stranger of a word, which lost its way in the nonsense of everyday modern management language. Maybe the word entered the language as a compensation of the suppression of femininity and masculinity, which the numbers were used to practice.
The Number got out into the flow of the crowd, which brought it to the tower of Ego. Everybody of the crowd, sorry, – every 'number' of the crowd experienced different stories in that tower.
Some of them had a story of the higher numbers, who were sarcastically laughing at the refusal to fire a low performer ‘just’ because of an ethical objection. ‘Low performer’, another stranger of a word, which lost its way in the everyday modern language of HR, humor resource management.
Camilleri described in another story 'a provoking young ambitious man, elegant, dynamic, well-conditioned, and with a career-obsessed manager’s posturing; those specimen, a race of the proliferating idiots, are being encountered more and more frequently...' Camilleri may have visited the tower of Ego.
There was another story of other higher numbers, who were creatively getting rid of those lower numbers unable to wear happy masks and degenerating those left to Pinocchios.
Some of them had a story of higher numbers, nice persons in fact, who let themselves to become slaves of the tower of Ego. To get out of that slavery was harder than in the time of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
There was another story, where youngsters from a humor resource department were sarcastically chuckling at the answer to one of their witless interview questions. That number, whom they were maltreating in that moment, just didn’t fit into their assumptions, wasn’t a good bargainer and so fell out of the crowd. Oops, it’s dangerous not to conform. Only the assumed clones of the tower of Ego are being preferred. Or just bargainers. The world of assumptions and bargainers. The world commanded and being held hostage by the money and numbers. The world, where people are reduced to the numbers.
Each of the numbers has an Ego and they are too busy with themselves. They climb the knotty trees of hierarchies and having built a place under the sun, they become hostages of their Egos. They maltreat each other in retaining that place at all costs. The price for the striven well-being is paradoxically its loss and a deep loneliness. The price is an amputated soul. But it’s hard to get rid of the addiction to the Ego. If it’s not being fed, it’s getting painful, like taking away the morning cigarette from a smoker…
The Number felt like an amputated leg in the tower of Ego. It opened its door and went down the road. It was already late at night and life seemed to pass by with an evil grin. The walk was long, same as the thoughts. Must the purposeless show really go on? Oh, no, this is the road to hell.
The Number changed the road and at the crack of dawn reached the seaside. The sunbeams started to peep out of the rainy clouds shyly as if in the hope for a new day and a new way. They colored the sky in beautiful teal. They reflected on the Number, which gently started to shine back, too. And in that subtle teal light the Number noticed other higher and lower numbers on the seaside. They were shining with the same slight hope. As they realized that they were not the only ones, the shining got stronger and stronger. They started to transform to their true and whole selves, becoming a ‘she’, a ‘he’ again, a diversity of wonderful and different authentic men and women. They helped each other take off the masks and turn their Egos from their foes to their friends. They grew strong, free, becoming aware of their evolutionary purpose; they were unfolding their full potential and taking responsibility for their way with naturalness of homeostasis… They became teal.
'You may say, I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one... I hope, someday you'll join us and the world be live as one...' John Lennon
(Teal is the color and code used in the book written by Frederic Laloux Reinventing Organizations and of the subsequent Teal for Teal movement.)