Good Old Lessons in Team-Work From an Age-old Fable

8/13/2019 Good Old Lessons in Team-Work From an Age-old Fable

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Good old lessons in teamwork from an age-old fable

The Tor toi se

And

The H ar e


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Once upon a time a tortoise and a

hare had an argument about whowas faster.

Im the fastest runner.

Thats not true. The fastest runner isme!


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Ok, lets have a race.

Fine!

They decided to settle

the argument with a race.They agreed on a routeand started off the race.


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The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for

some time. Then seeing that he was farahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd situnder a tree for some time and relax

before continuing the race.

Poor guy! Even if Itake a nap, hecould not catch upwith me.


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He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.


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The tortoise plodding on overtook

him and soon finished the race,emerging as the undisputed champ.


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The hare woke up and realized that he'd

lost the race.


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The moral of the story is that slow and steadywins the race .

This is the version of the story that we've allgrown up with.


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The story continues


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The hare was disappointed

at losing the race and hedid some soul-searching.He realized that he'd lostthe race only because he

had been overconfident,careless and lax. If he hadnot taken things for granted,there's no way the tortoisecould have beaten him.

Why didI lose

the race?


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Can we haveanother race?

Ok.

So he challenged the

tortoise to another race.The tortoise agreed.


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This time, the hare went all

out and ran without stoppingfrom start to finish. He won by several miles.


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The moral of the story?

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 fastand still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliablechap will consistently climb the organizational ladderfaster than the slow, methodical chap.

It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable .


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But the story doesn't end here


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The tortoise did some thinkingthis time, and realized that there'sno way he can beat the hare in arace the way it was currentlyformatted. How can

I can

win thehare?


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He thought for a while,and then challengedthe hare to another race,

but on a slightlydifferent route.The hare agreed.

Sure!

Can we have another race?This time well gothrough a different route.


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They started off. In keeping withhis self-made commitment to beconsistently fast, the hare took offand ran at top speed until he cameto a broad river. The finishingline was a couple of kilometers

on the other side of the river.

Goal


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The hare sat there wondering whatto do. In the meantime the tortoisetrundled along, got into the river,swam to the opposite bank,continued walking and finished therace.

Whatshould I

do?


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First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency .

In an organization, if you are a good speaker, make sure youcreate opportunities to give presentations that enable the seniormanagement to notice you.

If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort ofresearch, make a report and send it upstairs.

Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but willalso create opportunities for growth and advancement .


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The story still hasn't ended


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The hare and the tortoise, by

this time, had become prettygood friends and they did somethinking together. Both realizedthat the last race could have

been run much better.


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So they decided to do the

last race again, but to runas a team this time.

Hi, buddy. Howabout doing our lastrace again?

Great! I think wecould do it much

better, if we twohelp each other.

Hi, buddy. Howabout doing our lastrace again?


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There, the tortoise took over and

swam across with the hare on his back.


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On the opposite bank, the hare

again carried the tortoise and theyreached the finishing line together.They both felt a greater sense ofsatisfaction than they'd felt earlier.


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It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able towork in a team and harness each other's core

competencies, you'll always perform below parbecause there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well.

Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership,letting the person with the relevant core competency

for a situation take leadership .


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There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures.The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after hisfailure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was alreadyworking as hard as he could.

In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate towork harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriateto change strategy and try something different. And sometimes itis appropriate to do both .

The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. Whenwe stop competing against a rival and instead start competingagainst the situation, we perform far better.


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When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola inthe 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsithat was eating into Coke's growth. His executives werePepsi-focused and intent on increasing market share 0.1 percent a time.

Roberto decided to stop competing against Pepsi and insteadcompete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.


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He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake ofan American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What wasCoke's share of that? Two ounces. Roberto said Coke neededa larger share of that market. The competition wasn't Pepsi. Itwas the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went intothe remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach for a Coke

whenever they felt like drinking something.

To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every streetcorner. Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quitecaught up since.


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To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoiseteaches us many things:

Never give up when faced with failure

Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steadyWork to your competencies

Compete against the situation, not against arival.

Pooling resources and working as a team willalways beat individual performers


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Lets go and build stronger teams!

Good Old Lessons in Team-Work From an Age-old Fable

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