Good old lessons in teamwork
from an age-old fable
The Tortoise
and
The Rabbit
Once upon a time a tortoise and a
rabbit had an argument about who
was faster.
That’s not true.
The fastest runner is
me!
I’m the fastest
runner.
They decided to settle
the argument with a race.
They agreed on a route Fine!
and started off the race.
Ok, let’s have
a race.
The rabbit shot ahead and ran briskly
for some time. Then seeing that he was
far ahead of the tortoise, he thought
he'd sit under a tree for some time and
relax before continuing the race.
Poor guy! Even if I
take a nap, he
could not catch up
with me.
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 rabbit 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've all
grown up with.
The story continues …
The rabbit was
disappointed at losing the
race and he did some soul-
searching. He realized that Why did
he'd lost the race only I lose
because he had been the race?
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. Ok.
Can we have
another race?
This time, the rabbit 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 rabbit in a
race the way it was currently
formatted. How can
I can
win the
rabbit?
He thought for a while,
and then challenged
the rabbit to another Can we have another race?
race, but on a slightly This time we’ll go
different route. through a different route.
The tortoise agreed.
Sure!
They started off. In keeping with
his self-made commitment to be
consistently fast, the rabbit 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 Goal
river.
The rabbit 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.
What
should I
do?
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 to convince 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 rabbit 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 Great! I think we
as a team this time. could do it much
better, if we two
help each other.
Hi, buddy. How
about doing our last
race again?
They started off, and this time the
rabbit carried the tortoise till the
riverbank.
There, the tortoise took over and
swam across with the rabbit on his
back.
On the opposite bank, the rabbit
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.
There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.
Note that neither the rabbit nor the tortoise gave up after
failures. The rabbit 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 rabbit 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.
To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise
teaches us many things:
Never give up when faced with failure
Fast and consistent will always beat slow and
steady
Work to your competencies
Compete against the situation, not against a
rival.
Pooling resources and working as a team will
always beat individual performers
Let’s go and build stronger teams!
