The Small Merger

1. Who you are

Two of them are here. Their badges say Ascend Corp. Everything else about them says otherwise.

Everybody draws one thing this year, and only one: a rank, from Chief Executive down to Associate, which everybody can see and which changes constantly. Two of you will also find a second line on your badge, telling you that you are the Acquired Personnel, or that you are the Acquisition Assistant.

• The Acquisition Assistant knows who the Acquired Personnel is. The Acquired Personnel does not know who is helping them. Nobody else knows either of them.
• The Acquired Personnel never starts the year as Chief Executive. That would be too easy, and the Board is not that generous.
• The Board's four words belong to the CEO alone. Everyone below edits blind, so an honest clumsy edit and a deliberate one look identical.

2. How the year is actually run

Each quarter runs exactly the same way. The Board hands the Chief Executive four required objectives, and the Chief Executive writes a memo of fifteen words or fewer that uses all four of them. That memo is passed down the chain of command, and every single person who receives it must change exactly two things before passing it on. The lowest-ranking employee reads the final version out loud.

Two changes are compulsory, for everybody, with no exceptions. That rule matters more than it sounds. Because everyone has to damage the memo a little, damaging it deliberately does not stand out.

The app shows a handover screen between turns, so passing the device along never exposes the next employee's private brief. Wait for it to unlock.

The Compliance Index

Nobody is paid this year. There are no salaries, no perks and no fines. Instead the company keeps a single number, called the Compliance Index, and every quarter moves it. How many of the four objectives survived the chain decides which way, and by how much.

• A memo that passes lets the Chief Executive promote or demote any one employee.
• A memo that fails is a corporate coup. The Chief Executive drops straight to Associate, and everybody below them moves up one rung.

So the ladder is never still, and nobody keeps a rank for long.

Breaking News, and the document history

Between quarters there is Breaking News. It never moves money, because there is no money. It discloses something true about the room instead, and it is always something you have to interpret rather than something you can simply act on.

The device also publishes the document history, showing every version of the memo and the rank that held it at the time. It never publishes names. Since the ladder moves every quarter, working out who held which rank when is entirely your problem.

The performance review

Halfway through the year there is one performance review, and the company may accuse one person. If that person came with the acquisition, it is announced to everybody immediately. If they did not, the accuser is demoted to Associate. One accusation, and it is not free.

3. Ending the year, and who wins it

At the close of the year the company gets one naming round, and it must name both of them. The Acquired Personnel and the Acquisition Assistant, together, in the same breath. Naming one correctly and one wrongly is worth exactly nothing. Both, or neither.

The acquisition wins in one of two ways. Either the Acquired Personnel ends the year as Chief Executive. Or the Acquired Personnel and the Acquisition Assistant end it on neighbouring rungs of the ladder — Chief Executive and Vice President, or Vice President and Director, or Director and Manager. Manager and Associate does not count. Anybody can end up down there.

One more thing about the Index. If it reaches its limit in either direction, the year closes early. A collapsed Index ends it outright for the acquisition, because there is no company left to name anybody. A strong Index does not win it for you. It closes the year early and sends you straight to the naming round, which is its own reward, because the two of them ran out of quarters to climb.

And if nobody manages anything — the company does not name them, and the two of them never get into position — then the Compliance Index breaks the tie. A company that ran compliant holds. A company that ran sloppy does not.

4. Five things worth knowing before you start

1. A memo that fails is good for exactly two people, so watch who is relaxed about it.
2. Everybody must change two things, so the question is never whether somebody edited, only what they chose.
3. The document history is published by rank, so write down who held what, each quarter.
4. The mid-year accusation costs you your rank if you get it wrong, and it is the only one you get.
5. If you are the Acquired Personnel, remember that a memo can also be sabotaged by making it longer.

Take your seats. Pass the device around, collect your badge, and read it where nobody else can.