Paving Paradise?

Okay, so I've been working here for 2 weeks. A company town hall meeting is called.

There are about 15 of us in Fredericton. We sit around a speaker phone, some of us on chairs, some of us on the floor. You see, the conference table has temporarily disappeared.

On the phone are a few people on the phone in New York. Several on the phone in Ireland.

We're talking about values.

One of the big wigs in Ireland says, "Well, let me tell you. Before I began working for this company I'd worked for at least 12 companies before. But when I came working here we didn't need VISION STATEMENTS or MISSION STATEMENTS or any such garbage as that. We were a company that lived its values. So now, what I'm wondering is, by initiating this conversation about "values," are we paving paradise and doing as Joni Mitchell says, putting up a parking lot?"

(he begins to sing, without recalling the tune, mangling much of the tune) "They paved paradise, put up a parking lot...."