Posts tagged "screenplay"
Thought Leaders
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 | Filed under: Douchewords | No Comments
I’m excited to announce that I’m working on a new screenplay for a superhero movie. It’s called “THOUGHT LEADERS” (all-caps, just like that), and it features ordinary people, thrown together by their extraordinary talent to lead people using only the power of their thoughts.
After all, isn’t that what we’re doing here? Indulging some under-achiever adolescent fantasy to just be noticed?
The phrase really is most useful when considered as a form of “merit badge”, designed to shore up the egos of executives who never actually quite get it right. It’s the corporate equivalent of a Bronze swimming medal, awarded to the kids who only made it out the pool alive because the lifeguard wanted to impress his girlfriend.
“Aww Timmy, Well done! Who’s a brave boy!”
Both situations are dangerous – the kid walks away thinking he can actually swim, and the “Thought Leader” walks away thinking that he actually has thoughts. Worse than that, though, is the implication encoded in the phrase that everyone else must be “Thought Followers”.
In the real world where most of us actually get our work done, anyone can (and frequently does) come up with important contributions – an inspired idea, an important-yet-overlooked limitation in the plan du jour, an inspired piece of design…
We all have unique talents or perspectives, and this is why – in a good working environment – the thinking is done by everyone working together.
Implying the existence of Thought Leaders devalues that process, and renders everyone else automatons. Let’s demonstrate with a short excerpt from my above-mentioned screenplay.
Fade in, INT, GLOBALMEGACORP INC. OFFICE
THOUGHT FOLLOWER: …so then I had a flash of inspiration and just deleted out entire sales database.
THOUGHT LEADER (panicky): What?! Why?!
THOUGHT FOLLOWER: Well, you said that our storage costs were too high and we should cut back on hard-disk usage. So I found the biggest thing we had and got rid of it. Voila, problem solved.
THOUGHT LEADER: Um, I don’t think you really thought about this, did you?
THOUGHT FOLLOWER (cheerily): ‘Course not, boss. That’s what we have you for.
The THOUGHT LEADER buries his head in his hands and begins to sob quietly, while the COMPANY CEO takes a run-up for his delivery of the WORLD’S LARGEST KICK UP THE ASS.
Fade out