sabeena
November 3rd, 2003, 03:27 PM
dunno if u have read this before...its worth a re-run anyway. “and finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival” believe me ..its a major motivator...in office situations.
Do read thru the entire stuff.
HARE AND TORTOISE
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. 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 would 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 champ. The hare
woke up and realized that he’d lost the race.
The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race.
This is the version of the story that we have all grown up with.
But then recently someone told me a more interesting version of this
story.
It continues:
The hare was disappointed 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 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.
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 fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and
reliable chap will consistently climb the organizational ladder faster
than the slow, methodical chap. It’s good to be slow and steady; but
it’s better to be fast and reliable.
But the story doesn’t end here.
The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there’s 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. 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 kilometers 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.
The moral of the story ?
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 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 story still hasn’t ended.
The hare and the tortoise,by this time,had become 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 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.They both felt a greater sense of
satisfaction than they had felt earlier.
The moral of the story ?
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 mainly about situational leadership,letting the
person with the relevant core competency for a situation take
leadership.
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 his
failure.
The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard
as he could.In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is
appropriate
to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to
change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is
appropriate to do both.
The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When
we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against
the
situation, we perform far better.
When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was
faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke’s
growth. His Executives were Pepsi-focused and intent on increasing
market
share 0.1 per cent a time. Goizueta decided to stop competing against
Pepsi and instead compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.
He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American
per day . The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke’s share of that ? Two
ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market. The
competition wasn’t Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit
juices that went into the 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 street corner. Sales took a quantum
jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.
To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many
things.
Chief among them are that ,
· Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;
· Work to your competencies;
· Pooling resources and working as a team will always beat
individual performers;
· Never give up when faced with failure;
· and finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.
Do read thru the entire stuff.
HARE AND TORTOISE
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. 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 would 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 champ. The hare
woke up and realized that he’d lost the race.
The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race.
This is the version of the story that we have all grown up with.
But then recently someone told me a more interesting version of this
story.
It continues:
The hare was disappointed 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 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.
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 fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and
reliable chap will consistently climb the organizational ladder faster
than the slow, methodical chap. It’s good to be slow and steady; but
it’s better to be fast and reliable.
But the story doesn’t end here.
The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there’s 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. 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 kilometers 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.
The moral of the story ?
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 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 story still hasn’t ended.
The hare and the tortoise,by this time,had become 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 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.They both felt a greater sense of
satisfaction than they had felt earlier.
The moral of the story ?
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 mainly about situational leadership,letting the
person with the relevant core competency for a situation take
leadership.
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 his
failure.
The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard
as he could.In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is
appropriate
to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to
change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is
appropriate to do both.
The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When
we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against
the
situation, we perform far better.
When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was
faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke’s
growth. His Executives were Pepsi-focused and intent on increasing
market
share 0.1 per cent a time. Goizueta decided to stop competing against
Pepsi and instead compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth.
He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American
per day . The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke’s share of that ? Two
ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market. The
competition wasn’t Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit
juices that went into the 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 street corner. Sales took a quantum
jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.
To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many
things.
Chief among them are that ,
· Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;
· Work to your competencies;
· Pooling resources and working as a team will always beat
individual performers;
· Never give up when faced with failure;
· and finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.