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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

TORTOISE AND HARE: LESSONS IN SYN(D)ERGY!!!


STORY 1

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 set off. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for sometime. then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he fell asleep under a tree.
The tortoise overlooked the hare and soon finished the race, emerging as winner. The hare woke up and realized that he had lost the race.
Moral 1: Slow and Steady Wins The Race.

STORY 2

The hare was disappointed at losing the race and did some introspection. He realized that he had lost the race only because he had been over-confident, careless and lazy. If he had not taken things for granted, the tortoise could not 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 2: Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady. So while it is good to be slow and steady, it is better to be fast and consistent.


STORY 3

Now it was the turn of tortoise to do some introspection. He realized that there is no way he could beat the hare in the race the way it was. He thought for a while and then challenged the hare for 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 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 meanwhile, the tortoise got into the river, swam across to the opposite bank, continued walking and won the race.
Moral 3: Identify your core competency and change the playing field to suit your core competency. Working on your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement.

STORY 4

The story continues. The hare and tortoise had by now become good friends and did some introspection together. They decided to run the race again, but this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. The,n the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank the hare carried the tortoise again and they reached the finishing line together. Both of them felt great sense of happiness, satisfaction and success.
Moral 4: It is good to be individually motivated and to have strong core competencies, but until and unless you work in a team and harness each others' core competencies, you will always perform below par because there always are situations in which you would do poorly and someone else would do well. Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership.

Please note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failure. Failure is an event, it is never permanent.

Moral 5: The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could.
Moral 6: When we stop competing with the rival and start competing with the situation, we perform far better. In life, when faced with failure, it is sometimes appropriate to work harder and put in more effort by working smarter. Sometimes you just need to change strategy and try something innovative. And at other times, it is appropriate to do both.


THE SYNDIAN FOOTNOTE

The current post is an adaptation of a presentation that took place at an AICTE sponsored Faculty Development Programme held in 2008. The person behind these stories and the consequent morals in management is unknown. THE SYNDIAN wishes to acknowledge the effort of the anonymous and does not in any sense wishes to appropriate the credit of the same. The intent of using this content is to benefit  the fellow Syndians become better hares and tortoises; and accelerate the process of Nation-building by Syn(d)ergizing their efforts.
Jai Hind! Jai Synd! What Else!?!?!?!

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