HARE & TORTOISE - RACE AGAIN

Once upon a time a Tortoise and a Hare-had an argument about who was faster, “ I'm the fastest runner,” said the Hare. “ That's not true. The fastest runner is me’’ retorted the Tortoise.

They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and started off the race. Hare says, “Ok. Let’s have a race.” “Fine,” the Tortoise replies.

The Hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Seeing that he was far ahead of the Tortoise, he thought he would relax under a tree for some time before continuing the race.

Poor guy! Even if I take a nap, he could not catch up with me, the Hare thought. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep.

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.

Moral

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. He realized that he'd lost the race only because had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there is no way the Tortoise could have beaten him.

The Hare challenged the Tortoise to another race. The Tortoise agreed.

This time, the Hare went all out an ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.

Moral

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 there.

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 win the race?” he thought.

He thought for a while, and then challenged the Hare to another race, but on a slightly different route.

The Hare agreed.

Tortoise: Can we have another race? This time we’ll go through a different route.”

Hare: 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.

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.

Moral

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 cerate 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.

Hare: Hi, buddy how about doing our last race again?

Tortoise: Great ! I think we could do it much better, if we two help each other.

They started off, and this time the Hare carried the Tortoise till the rivebank. 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 had felt earlier.

Moral

It is good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you are able to work in a team and harness each other’s core competencies, you will ways perform below par because there will always be situations in which you will 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.

Lessons to learn

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 ways 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!