the hare n the tortoise

GOOD OLD LESSON IN TEAMWORK

"once upon a time,a tortoise and the hare had an argument about who was faster.the hare really confident that it is the faster among them. they decided to settle the argument with a race. they 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 the tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. he sat under the tree and soon feel asleep. the tortoise plodding on overtook hin and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. the hare woke up and realized that he'd lost the race.




slow and steady wins the race

the story continues....

the hare was dissappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. he realized that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. if he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise 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.

moral of the story is fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. if you have two people in your organization, one slow, methodical and reliable and the other is fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable chap will consistently climb the organizational ladder faster than the slow.

its good to be slow and steady; but its better to be fast and reliable.



BUT...THE STORY DOESN'T END HERE....
the tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there is no way he can beat the hare in a race the way he currently formatted. he thought for a while and then challenged the hare to another race, but slightly different route. the hare agreed. they 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 kilometer on the other side of the river. the hare sat there wondering what to do. in the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got in to the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and win the race.

moral pf the story is "first identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your competency"


THE STORY STILL HAS"NT ENDED...
the hare and the tortoise, by this time, had come pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. both realized that the last race could have been run much better. so they decided to do the last race again, but to run as the team this time. they staerted 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 in the finishing line together. they both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.

moral of the story???
"its good to be individually brilliant and have strong core competencies; but unless you able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.




credit to: madam Ling Ai Yeng lecture slides