2 posts tagged with "Fiction"

Previously: Derek Hutchins, management consultant, has successfully sold a Lean Six Sigma optimization program to a tribe of early humans. Tomorrow, the transformation begins.

Opening Narration​

Dawn breaks over the Great Rift Valley. The ant is positioned on a rock overlooking the tribal settlement. The narrator's voice carries a tone of deep concern.

"Week One of what Derek has termed 'The Transformation Initiative.' In nature, we often observe organisms adapting to their environment. Here, we will observe the opposite: an environment being forced to adapt to an organism that has no business being in it."

The camera pans to Derek, who has constructed a makeshift presentation stand using rocks and animal hide.

"The consultant has been awake since before sunrise, preparing what he calls 'rollout materials.' The tribe, accustomed to rising with the sun to begin hunting, has been asked to delay their departure for what Derek has scheduled as an 'alignment session.'"

Several tribe members look at the horizon, clearly wanting to leave.

"They are confused. They are hungry. And the morning hunting window is closing."

A pause.

"But they have committed to the process. And so, they wait."

A natural history documentary in four parts

Opening Narration​

The camera pans across the vast African savanna. The sun rises over ancient cliffs. A small ant navigates a blade of grass in extreme close-up. The voice is measured, wise, impossibly British.

"The Great Rift Valley, approximately two million years ago. Dawn breaks over one of the most significant locations in human evolutionary history. Here, our ancestors developed the fundamental skills that would carry our species forward: tool use, social cooperation, the careful observation of patterns in nature."

The ant pauses, antennae twitching.

"And here, on this particular morning, all of that is about to be threatened by the single most destructive force in the world: a management consultant with a PowerPoint presentation."

The ant's antennae droop slightly.

"Nature can be cruel."