A Modern Parable

I don't know if this is new or not, a friend just e-mailed it to me:


Subject: Fw: A Modern Parable

A Japanese company (Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action.

Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the one person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the "Rowing Team Quality First Program," with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and cancelled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

The End.

 

Right on target BOBBO and exactly the way things are done in the government.

 

Here's another Modern Parable

Modern Problem Solving
Native American tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount, However, in many organizations we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buy a stronger whip.
2. Change riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse.
4. Appoint a committee to study the horse.
5. Arrange a visit to other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increase the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appoint a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Create a training session to increase our riding ability
9. Compare the state of dead horses in today's environment.
10. Pass a resolution declaring that, "This horse is not dead- "
11. Blame the horse's parents.
12. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declare that, "No horse is too dead to beat. "
14- Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Declare the horse is "better, faster, and cheaper" dead.
17. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
18. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
19. Say that, "This horse was procured with cost as an independent variable. "
20. Promote the horse to a supervisory position.

Johanna