Parallel Hearts

Part I: Chapter 2 - A Close Call

Six Months Later
February 2020
New York City

~~~~~

     Evie signaled to the analyst to go back to the slide highlighting the main points and turned to face the table across from her in board room.

     "And that, everyone, is the plan for the next three months. Any questions?"

     As expected, Lisa's arm shot up immediately.
"Will my team get to try it first?"

     Evie shook her head.

     "Not this feature, as it's an addition to the private banking module." Evie signaled to the analyst again, "Yuri, would you please pull up the overall timeline?"

     Lisa's arm shot up again, and she waved her hand. Evie wasn't sure why Lisa always raised her hand in stakeholder meetings as though she was an overly dedicated student in a third-grade classroom, but she didn't mind.

     "Okay..." Lisa dragged the word out. "But my team has always tested the features before they go to user acceptance testing."

     "That's right - Yuri could you go forward a slide - that's why we have your team set up to do an end-to-end walk-through and testing session at the end for the Private Wealth team."

     Lisa began to raise her hand again but started coughing into the elbow of her suit coat. She waved Evie on to continue as she searched for something in her purse, the overhead lights glinting off the numerous rings Lisa wore on nearly every finger. The other occupants of the room, all executives or board members, took this time to talk quietly amongst themselves.

     "I hope you don't mind, Lisa. I know that might be asking a lot of your team, but your feedback was irreplaceable during our last sprint." Evie smiled.

     This was the best way to deal with Lisa, she found. Lisa was not very good at her job, but her team was excellent at theirs. Evie wasn't just levying meaningless platitudes: Lisa's team's feedback would be extremely helpful, but in their own area of the bank. Lisa often confused the banking segments, despite working there for twelve years.

     By turning her attention to what her team could do rather than focusing on what they couldn't do, she essentially fed three dogs with one bone: Lisa felt important, her team was acknowledged, and Evie didn't have a team overstepping where they shouldn't and slowing down their plan.

     And as a bonus, because she phrased it as though it was a favor that Lisa might not be interested in, Lisa was more inclined to go along with it rather than push back. Lisa was somewhat oppositional and usually needed to feel like she was overcoming a barrier when facing any problem in her job, and this was the perfect bait-and-switch.

     Lisa beamed. "Oh I LOVE that," she said in a sing-song voice, clapping her hands together. To everyone else's discomfort, she proceeded to dance in her chair in excitement. But she began coughing uncontrollably again, though this time into her handkerchief. Evie frowned and looked over to Yuri, who was closer to Lisa.

     Picking up on the cue, Yuri got up from his chair on the side of the room and handed Lisa a bottle of water. Still coughing, she opened it and managed to take a sip.

     "Lisa, do you need to step out for a moment?" the white-haired chairman at the back of the room asked, thoughtfully. From anyone else it would sound passive aggressive or like a threat but Glen was genuinely one of the nicest people, let alone former-CIO turned Chairman of the board, that Evie had ever met.