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The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realized that there's no way it can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted.
It 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 came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometres 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.
The moral - "First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency."
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.
***
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.
The moral - "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.
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Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the personwith the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership. 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.
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And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.
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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 has much to say: Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady;work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with
failure; & finally, compete against the situation - not against a rival.
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