The
Tortoise and The Hare - What they learn about teamwork.
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 some time. Realizing
that it will take some time 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.
Someone
recently added a continuation to this age old tale. It goes like
this:
The hare
realized that he was over confident, complacent and took things
too easily. He decided to have a re-match with the tortoise. The
tortoise accepted his challenge.
This time, the hare
ran with all his might and didn't stop until he crossed the finish
line.
The moral of the
story? Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady.
But the story doesn't
end here.
This time,
it was the tortoise that did the soul searching and he realized
that if the hare didn't stop, there is no way he will beat him.
He thought hard and decided on a different course and he challenged
the hare to another re-match. The hare, of course, agreed.
With the lessons
learnt from his previous failure in mind, the hare kept on running
once the race started and didn't stop until the route leads him
to the bank of a river. He was taken by surprise and he did not
know what to do, since he could not swim. There were no bridges
in sight and no one to ask for directions. As he was cracking
his head, thinking of ways to cross the river, the tortoise strolled
slowly along, dived into the river, swam across it and ultimately,
finished the race before the hare.
The moral of the
story? Know your strengths and take on your competitors in areas
of your core competency.
The story still hasn't
ended.
With the hare and
the tortoise spending so much time together racing, they have become
rather good friends, they have also developed mutual respect for
one another as they realized that they are both different and
they have different strengths. They decided to race again, but
this time, as a team.
As the race
started, the hare carried the tortoise and they sped to the river
bank. There, they switched positions and the tortoise ferried
the hare across the river. On the opposite bank, the hare again
carried the tortoise and they crossed the finishing line together.
They completed the race in a record time that both of them can
never achieve if they were to do it alone. They also 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.
Being supportive team members is necessary for a team to advance.
There are
more lessons on teamwork to be learned 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, but was not doing as well as he wished.
Imagine
how long it will take the hare to learn how to swim! Or for the
tortoise to learn to run fast. In this day and age when the environment
changes at lightning speed, we have to learnt to work with people
who have strengths in areas that we do not have.
It is the
same in business, if we can collaborate with people who are experts
in areas that we are not familiar with, we will realize that our
market suddenly becomes bigger.
Adapted
from unknown author's article.
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