My World

The Blue Department You now stand facing a stark blue door. It gives the impression you are about to embark on an interstellar journey. This notion builds as your forefinger is requested for a fingerprint ID and your right eye for a retinal scan. Your magnetic-striped visitors' pass now seems quaint and unnecessary. The door suddenly opens in four different directions to create an entry port. The receptionist is wearing a plain but well-made blue suit. His jacket is off and the sleeves of his white shirt are rolled up. His demeanor is that of a college professor-serious, distracted, attempting to be helpful while multitasking. Digital images flash around the reception area walls. Several feeds of science and history channels run across several video skins. There is an antiseptic smell in the air that reminds one of a laboratory. One full wall is devoted to highly technical, leather-bound reference materials. While your Blue Department tour is open-ended in terms of time, the receptionist instructs you to "keep simplistic and obious questions to a minimum "when talking to employees, "so as not to disturb those in strategic or problem-solving modes." Above their bulletin board is a slogan that says "Pushing the Boundaries". Thinking you are about to encounter characters like Data in Star Trek, you are surprised to see a man in a silk tie of muted colors. He introduces himself as Head of Product Trend Research. He pulls you into a meeting held in an open "Brainstorming Room" and the group there asks you several questions to be answered "from the viewpoint of an average person." Each answer you give elicits intense and pointed debate among the brainstormers. As they refer to you in the third person, you feel a bit bewildered; they don't even notice as you slip back out into the corridor to continue your tour. Some cubicles are crowded with piles of research materials. Some are neat; some are not. Everyone seems to be pushing his or her intellects to the limit to prove some point. Scientific and high-tech jokes and puns elicit short barks of laughter. Mostly, employees' eyes glitter from the stimulation of new and far-reaching concepts. You find it odd that half the employees are dressed in expensive designer outfits while the other half look quite academic and understated; most all suit jackets hang off the backs of chairs. The conference room is as high as tech as the reception area. A large screen for video conferencing and computer presentations dominates one end of the room; laptop computers, all wired into the middle of the table, are available at each seat. The seats seem to be experiments in ergonomics, with fantastic shapes and very lightweight materials. You are startled to see Nobel Prizes displayed here; you've never seen one before. You walk out into the corridor, past more cubicles. One reveals a man with an intensely knitted brow, staring up at the ceiling, fingers touching in a pyramid on his desk. An empty piece of paper and a pencil await. As you pass, he springs to life, frantically recording ideas that seem to be coming all too fast. His function reads Strategic Planning. Other departments you see are research, long-term marketing, computer programming, analytics, science lab, or abstract reasoning. You are left with the impression that when Prism Company needs a new idea, research, or long-term strategy, they are in excellent hands here. But unless you are intellectually quick, this department is an intimidating place to be. You fingerprint and retinal scan yourself out of the Blue Department. It has taken an hour to complete your tour here.