1、Good old lessons in teamwork from an age-old fableThe Tortoise And The Hare,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
2、. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought hed 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 an
3、d realized that hed lost the race.,The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that weve all grown up with.,The story continues ,The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realized that hed lost the race only bec
4、ause he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, theres no way the tortoise could have beaten him.,Why did I lose the race?,So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.,This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from star
5、t 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
6、climb the organizational ladder faster than the slow, methodical chap. Its good to be slow and steady; but its better to be fast and reliable.,But the story doesnt end here ,The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that theres no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was curren
7、tly formatted.,How can I can win the hare?,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 cam
8、e 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.,What should I do?,The moral
9、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, mak
10、e 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 hasnt ended ,The hare and the tortoise, by this time, had become pretty good friends and th
11、ey 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
12、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 theyd felt earlier.,The moral of the story? Its good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencie
13、s; but unless youre able to work in a team and harness each others core competencies, youll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which youll do poorly and someone else does well. Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core
14、 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 wor
15、king 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 l
16、esson. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better.,He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Cokes share of that? Two ounces. Roberto said Coke needed a lar
17、ger share of that market. The competition wasnt 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 t
18、ook 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:Never give up when faced with failure Fast and consistent will always beat slow and steadyWork to your competencies Compete against the situation, not against a rival.Pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers,Lets go and build stronger teams!,
