Saturday, December 6, 2008
Teamwork Wins The Race
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| Slow and steady wins the race. |
- Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. The tortoise and hare both agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champion. The hare woke up and realised that he had lost the race.
Lesson: Slow and steady wins the race. - The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realised that he had lost the race because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.
This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.
Lesson: Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. - The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realised that there is no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. The tortoise and hare started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river.
The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race.
Lesson: First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency.
In an organisation, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you.
If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement. - The tortoise and hare, by this time, had become good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realised that the last race could have been run much better. So the tortoise and hare decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.
They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. Both the tortoise and hare felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they had felt earlier.
Lesson: It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.
Teamwork is letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.
The stories continue ...
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| Fast and consistent wins the race. |
11:29 AM
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4 comments:
I remember reading this story as a child.
Interesting new twist and ending. A great way to prove your point.
I wish the Cleveland Browns would learn this lesson!
Interesting.
I enjoyed the new twists that you introduced in this age old story.
absolutely true ... you can't win alone
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