Jim

Every prolific story starts with some words. Every story of any kind starts with words in fact.

One day three letters of the alphabet, I, J and M congregated together in a bureaucratic board meeting to deliberate on something very important. That important thing was the following question.

"Out of the letters we represent, I, J and M, what is the best combination for forming an ideal name for our sample scenario documents?"

Everyone knows that the recruitment department were always looking to innovate, collaborate and facilitate new and ever-adapting simulations based upon a "real life" view of an ever-changing world.

The result? The working year of 2020 was almost over, and "Joe" would no longer do. 2021 was coming and therefore the sample name for all the hypothetical scenarios must be changed.

"Between the letters I, J and M there are six possible permutations to work with," I began authoritatively.

"Surely we just go with Jim, right?" J suggested hastily.

"Uh-uh-uh. Careful there Presto!" I remarked. "We need to evaluate all of our options and conduct a SWOT analysis of ALL SIX possible options in order to reach a carefully calculated decision!"

"Alright then, can we start with our SWOT analysis for Jim and then be done with checking our tickboxes?" J persisted, slightly agitatedly.

"Absolutely not!" I scolded, shutting down such a ludicrous suggestion.

"We should be systematic about this, right? We start alphabetically I'm guessing?" M finally chimed in, breaking her silence.

"Pre-cisely!" I lauded.

"See J, it's bright young minds like M that are full of potential that our company needs! Minds full of explorative innovati0n and systems thinking!" I applauded further, beaming at M before shooting J a condescending smirk.

"Innovation that sticks to the system without thinking practically or outside the box---?" J murmured before being cut off.

"So starting alphabetically the first name on the table is Ijm!" I announced, excited to get the ball rolling.

"Wait, are you sure it's pronounced 'Ih-Jum' rather than a more Nordic sort of 'Eye-yim?" M posed, rather quick-wittedly.

"Ah! Brilliant thinking M! We shouldn't use our anglo-centric westernised pronunciation system so quickly! Good on you for calling that out! In fact, we should address a wide range of potential pronunciations to showcase our diversified approaches in our thinking!" J applauded, raising a finger in exclamation.

"Oh good lord..." J muttered under his breath desperately hoping I couldn't hear him.

"We have our two initial pronunciations," I carried on, ignoring J again.

"We can classify that under the strengths of Ijm! A wide range of pronunciations allowing for a broad range of opportunities!" I stated, snapping M another look of validation.

"The hypothetical scenario forms are filled out online though. Given they're only text-based, why does it matter how the name's pronounced?" J countered, loudly and clearly this time.

"Excellent thinking, J!" I lauded again.

"What?" J quietly stammered, taken aback at his suggestion being not only addressed, but complimented.

"We should attach an audio sampling button to whatever name we use in the scenario! That way, the applicant will know they're pronouncing right when they read it!"

"Oh boy..." J groaned defeatedly.

The meeting went on for another forty five minutes, in which eventually--only after conducting the proper SWOT analyses for Ijm, Imj, Jim, Jmi, Mij and finally Mji-- it was concluded that the name used in hypothetical scenarios for online applications would in fact, be Jim.

It was not because of dangerous intuition that jumped to foregone conclusions. It was because of the correct systemic analysis that evaluated all options thoroughly. This is what makes bureaucratic meetings run by people high on their own confidence like I so successful!