Good Old Lessons in From An Age-Old Fable: Teamwork

Good old lessons in teamwork
from an age-old fable

The Tortoise
And
The Hare
Once upon a time a tortoise and a

hare had an argument about who
was faster.
Thats not true.
The fastest runner is
me!
Im the fastest
runner.
They decided to settle

the argument with a race.
They agreed on a route
and started off the race.
Fine!
Ok, lets have

a race.
The hare 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 hare 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 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 lax. If he had
not taken things for
granted, there's 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.
Ok.
Can we have
another race?
This time, the hare 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 hare in a
race the way it was currently
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.
Can we have another

race? This time well go
through a different route.
Sure!
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.
Goal
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?

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.
The story still hasn't ended
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.
So they decided to do the

last race again, but to run
as a team this time.
Great! I think we
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

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.

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 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.
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 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
Lets go and build stronger teams!
Made by
NAME- JATIN RATHEE
CLASS- 6th C
ROLL NO -17

Good Old Lessons in From An Age-Old Fable: Teamwork

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Good old lessons in teamwork

from an age-old fable

Once upon a time a tortoise and a

They decided to settle

Ok, lets have

The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for

He sat under the tree and soon fell

The tortoise plodding on overtook

The hare woke up and realized that he'd

The moral of the story is that slow and steady

The story continues

The hare was disappointed

This time, the hare went all

The moral of the story?

But the story doesn't end here

The tortoise did some thinking

He thought for a while,

Can we have another

They started off. In keeping with

The hare sat there wondering what

The moral of the story?

The story still hasn't ended

The hare and the tortoise, by

So they decided to do the

Hi, buddy. How

They started off, and this time the

There, the tortoise took over and

On the opposite bank, the hare

The moral of the story?

There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.

To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise

Lets go and build stronger teams!

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