Why do you think Vitorio and Gary are being so defensive about the changes?

In their three years at Melbourne's Vreeland Pharmaceuticals, Vitorio Nuos and Gary Shaw had rarely crossed paths, and they had exchanged no more than a dozen sentences. But here they were, seat mates on a plane headed to company headquarters in Sydney. And suddenly, they had a lot to say to each other.

'What I'd like to know is why we're wasting a trip to Sydney to thrash out some new policies about leader competencies,' Vitorio said.

'Because Connie Wyland is HR at Vreeland, and you and I both know that policies and models and all touchy-feely people stuff is the lifeblood of HR,' Gary replied. 'I also think a lot of this is the result of panic on the heels of the scandals in sales last year.'

'I don't think there's any need to panic. The company fired the guys and apologised; you just move on,' said Vitorio.

Gary laughed sarcastically. 'No, you fire them, you apologise, then you analyse the whole thing ad nauseam, and then you hamstring your management team with endless rules and bureaucratic standards just to make sure it doesn't happen again.'

'So we all pay for their mistakes,' replied Vitorio.

'We pay because HR feels guilty that those guys moved up so high in the system,' Gary replied. 'So now Connie and her staff have devised the ultimate solution to the problem. I don't know why we all have to go in to discuss it; she's already decided what she's going to do and she's positive this is the cure-all to prevent any further embarrassment to the company.'

'Let's look at the document,' Vitorio said. He reached under the seat, retrieved and unpacked his tablet, placed it on the tray table, and turned it on.

'Too much glare,' Gary said, peeking over. Vitorio pulled down the window shade.

'Is that better?' Gary nodded. The two men read through the document.

'I resent the term "rogue leaders",' Gary remarked, pointing to the phrase.

Vitorio shrugged. 'It's a rough draft. They'll clean up the language . . . I think.'

'It's really just a rehash of the mission statement and all of the things we learnt in training. This is stuff we all learnt at university. I feel like I'm being lectured.' 'Yeah.' Vitorio scrolled up and down the document. 'Any business student could have written this.'

'I hear the HR crew put in lots of overtime,' said Gary.

Vitorio smirked. 'For this? I'll tell you - and this is just between you and me - but I really resent this, and we're some of the newer members of management. I'd love to hear what the older managers are saying.'