The Trouble With Board Meetings

At 12:54 on a Thursday afternoon, just before lunch, Mr. George Hardcastle rose from the head of the board meeting table. He looked around at the board before slowly and calmly walking to the window. The board watched him in silence; Mr. Hardcastle was an eccentric and hard to predict chairman, one of the reasons for his success in business. Upon reaching the window Mr. Hardcastle rhythmically drummed his fingers on the sill for a moment, before opening the catch and sliding open the window. A cold wind slipped into the office, ruffling the hair of some of the board members and rustling the papers on the mahogany table. The men hoped this display wouldn’t go on for too long; Mr. Hardcastle was renowned for his long inspirational speeches and they were all quite hungry.

Mr. Hardcastle turned to look at the room, “well, let’s see” he said, before coolly stepping onto the sill, taking a further step and plummeting 57 stories to his death.

There was a heartbeat of silence in the boardroom. Then chaos erupted. Half of the board ran to the window to witness the splattery demise of their former chairman, while the others ran the other way, away from the window, to the back of the room.

When presented with a vision of death, only half of the board were able to accept it, the others fled from the image like sheep from a wolf.