Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Teamwork fable



I hope you all know the old story about the race between a tortoise and a rabbit.  Rabbit used to boast about his speed and agility. To his surprise, the tortoise challenged him for a race. Rabbit made fun of the tortoise, but agreed for the race. As the race began, the rabbit raced way ahead of the tortoise, just like everyone thought. Somewhere mid-way, the rabbit realized that he is way ahead of the tortoise. He decided to take a short nap. After a while, when rabbit woke up, he realized that he is already late, and the tortoise is almost on the finishing line. The rabbit ran fast as he could but still lost the race. Now it was the turn of the tortoise to boast.

Slow and steady wins

But story is not finished yet. After this win, confidence of the tortoise was high and rabbit was in shambles. When the rabbit came back to his senses he analyzed the cause of his failure. Rabbit again challenged the tortoise for a race. Tortoise was over-confident and readily accepted the challenge. In this race, rabbit did not take any rest and focused on running. Rabbit won the race by a huge margin. Now it was turn of the rabbit for the glory. 

Fast and consistent always beat the slow and steady

Now it was turn of tortoise for introspection. Next day, the tortoise challenged rabbit for yet another race. Rabbit agreed immediately. Again race started. Rabbit was consistent and fast, so he was way ahead of the tortoise. But mid-way there was a river in this race which rabbit was unable to cross. Though tortoise was slow, he still won the race.

Know your core competencies

After all these races, the rabbit and the tortoise became good friends and decided to have one more race. But this race was different. Here they decided to cooperate, and not compete. In the first half rabbit picked up the tortoise and reached to the river banks in no time. Now it was turn for the tortoise to carry rabbit and cross the river. The race set a new record.

Teamwork is better than individual performance

Now it is your choice to pick the lesson.