Agreeableness & Co

A cautionary tale about a business called Agreeableness & Co

Was nine AM at Agreeableness & Co., the weekly meeting due,

But “key team members” still were late — so we did what “polite” folk do.

We started on the biscuits, we had some Christmas cake,

One turned up, smiled, vanished—“Just popping out for tea to make.”

One said, “I must leave early—hope that’s quite alright”;

They mattered, but we let it pass — best not to start a fight.

We checked the actions, as we do; they’d drifted, half on pause:

“Blocked by this”, “Awaiting that”—and no-one named the cause.

Then HR joined with something new—an initiative to appraise;

The sighs, the tuts, the eye-rolls wrote themselves on every gaze.

“Not another thing,” they thought, “don’t they understand?”

And anything with merit in it never got to land.

A customer came in swinging, making clear their own complaint,

All personal and blaming—hot with heat and short on restraint.

And up rose defensive instincts—duck, defend, counter-attack,

To answer barbed accusations with a fiery retort thrown back.

We “agreed” the next steps briskly—said we were aligned,

Then closed the meeting smiling, with the truth left locked behind.

It surfaced in the corridor, in whispers and asides—

Agreeable in public… and disagreeing where it hides.

So little got decided; and even less got done—

At Agreeableness & Co., the talk was nice; but the shop was badly run.

Truth was “too uncomfortable”, so reality stayed hid—

If only we’d learnt disagreeing… we might have done what we said we did.