The Tortoise And The Hare : (A Management Story on teamwork from an old-age fable)

 

Everyone knows about the story of the tortoise and the hare. What most people don't know is that the there are several valuable lessons on teamwork to be learnt from the story...

Long time ago, there was a tortoise and a hare who had an argument about who the faster runner was. They finally decided to take on one another on a race.

As the race started, the hare sprinted ahead briskly for sometime. Realizing that it will take sometime for the tortoise to catch up with him, he decided to seek shelter from the sun under a tree before continuing the race. As he sat under the tree, he gradually fell asleep. The tortoise, crawling at a steady pace, eventually overtook him and won the race. The hare woke up and realized that his complacency cost him the trophy.

The moral of the story is that the determined, hardworking and steady paced people will eventually overtake the fast but complacent. 

We are all familiar with this story, which teaches us the moral that Slow and Steady Wins the Race. This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with. But the story does not ends here.... 

Now the real management story starts from here....

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 relax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. 

So another day, 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.

⧭ Here, 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 worker will consistently climb the organizational ladder faster than the slow, methodical worker.

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 did the analysis that why he lost to hare. Then, He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route.  The hare agreed his challenge and

On another morning 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.

Once again here the tortoise wins. 

⧭ 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.

But the story still hasn't end here …

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. 

Hare said to Tortoise that: Hi, buddy. How about doing our last race again?

Tortoise agreed and said: Great! I think we could do it much better, if we two help each other.

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'd 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.

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