Consultant Lingo Or Phrase From A Dystopian Young Adult Novel?

Can you figure out whether these vague but sinister-sounding terms are consultant slang or a term from a dystopian young adult novel? 

The Blank

A shorthand phrase consultants use to talk about the client’s needs, i.e. the problem or deficit the consultant has been hired to solve. Or it’s a wall of solid fog that cuts The State off from the rest of the world, trapping its citizens within.

Chronicler

A mid-level management position that writes briefs for the company’s clients, or a wizened elder who secretly records the history of his civilization despite President Zorn’s efforts to destroy the archives and erase the rebels’s legacy.

Cullings

Consultant slang for when new hires are laid off in their first year, or midnight raids made by The State on rebel camps. They’ve become so frequent recently… There must be a spy.

The Board

This term might refer to a consulting company’s executive committee which meets to deliberate on all major company decisions. It could also refer to Zorn’s Board of Order whose members decide what job a baby will have immediately after it’s born.

Triad

It could be the word used for the three-person groups who are tasked with on-site consulting projects. But it could also be the word the novel’s teenage protagonist uses to describe the love triangle she’s caught in with the Rebel Commander’s son and the rugged stranger with gray-almost-black eyes whom she nursed back to health after he was discovered unconscious by the River of Ash.

Delayering

Making an organization more efficient through simplification, e.g., “If we eliminate the middle management,  we can delayer the company and expedite the decision-making process.” Or the name of the penalty for getting caught reading, e.g., “Did you see that the town square is set for a Delayering? I heard they found a newspaper in Pleek’s attic.”

Pipeline

The Ivy League education and McKinsey internships most new hires come in with. Or perhaps it’s a school, hidden away in the mountains, where children who demonstrate magical abilities are sent to harness their powers. Only half of them will make it out.

Prediction Analyst

An employee who analyzes data to give clients long-term recommendations. Or the Mage Queen who can foresee all possible outcomes of the coming war. She’s currently imprisoned in Zorn’s Weeping Towers for sedition – the rebels must act swiftly if they wish to save her!

H.R.’s Text

Maybe it’s the employee handbook distributed by human resources. Or maybe it’s a huge, bound codex that was written by the rebel leader, Harrington Root. It’s kept in an illegal, underground library, somewhere beyond The Blank… That is, if it exists at all.

The Winter Ball

An employee holiday party with a black-tie dress code, an open bar, and karaoke. Or a funeral mass given during the Winter’s Solstice to honor those who died in The Uprising, crushed as they were by Zorn’s sky-tanks. Farewell, comrades! The Chronicler will sing your names.

The Promotion

A reward given to those who excel in the re-education training and demonstrate a superior lack of humanity.

Author’s Pick