Lab Rats

The introduction begins in a café in Menlo Park: the author Dan Lyons sits with a woman called Julia (the name has been changed) trying to make a duck out of Lego. Julia is a certified trainer in the Lego Serious Play (LSP) method; companies such as Unilever, Johnson & Johnson and Google have adopted this training. Lyons has been researching modern workplaces for two years and puts forward his theory: at least part of people's unhappiness at work comes from the nonsensical, artificially emotional personal-development and transformation workshops that companies drag them into. Julia has also studied hypnosis and NLP; she tells the author «make a duck» and gives him 30 seconds.

Lyons looks at the six Lego bricks and panics: he sees an IQ test, a Rorschach test or a redundancy list. He makes a duck from four bricks with the head attached sideways. Julia asks: «What made you think you had to use all six? I only said make a duck». It turns out that this is the most popular exercise in LSP and the lesson is that everyone makes a different duck; the duck is not a puzzle but a window onto the soul. Lyons admits that Julia «filleted him like a fish» and laid bare his neuroses.

The author asks: why have workplaces turned into something between a kindergarten and a Scientology assessment centre? His answer: companies are afraid; many industries are collapsing, the «Fourth Industrial Revolution» is coming, and so they try to reprogram employees' brains. These psychological «pokings» especially increase fear of dismissal among workers over 50. A programmer says: «It feels like you've joined a cult». Lyons writes that the workplace has turned into «a psychology laboratory run by charlatans» and that employees are not ducks but lab rats.

The introduction gives the plan of the book: in Part Two the «Four Factors» (money, insecurity, change, dehumanisation), in Part Three examples of companies that put workers first. In chapter 1 the author tells his own story: in 2013, at 52, he was fired from Newsweek and took a job at a software company called HubSpot; there were beanbags, ping-pong tables, unlimited holiday, firings called «graduations» and a language of «rock stars»/«ninjas»; high staff turnover was counted a badge of pride. For two years he experienced anxiety and depression, then wrote the book «Disrupted» and received letters from hundreds of readers; the letters describe hidden psychological pressure, personality tests, anonymous feedback and «forced fun».

• The introduction opens with a vivid scene (the Lego duck) and sets up the issue before the reader's eyes
• The author explains his own negative experience with sceptical humour
• The book is divided into four factors and each will be opened in a separate chapter
• Social proof is created with readers' letters and examples with changed names