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LITTLE TALE TO CHEER US UP
DOES THIS STORY SOUND A TAD BIT FAMILIAR?
An American Aerospace Company and the Japanese decided to have competitive boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance. On the big day they both felt as ready as they could be.
The Japanese won by a mile!
Afterward, the American team became very discouraged by the loss, and morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found. A consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem, and recommend corrective action. Their findings:
- The problem was that the Japanese team had eight people rowing and one person steering. Where the American team had one person rowing and eight people steering. After a year of study and spending millions of dollars analyzing the management structure the consulting firm concluded that: Too many people were steering and not enough rowing.
To prevent losing to the Japanese again next year, the American team's management structure was completely reorganized. Now there were four steering managers, three area steering managers, on staff steering manager, and a new performance review system for the person rowing the boat to provide more incentive to row harder.
The next year the Japanese won by two miles!
Humiliated, the American corporation laid off the rower for poor performance and gave all the managers a bonus for fixing the problem.
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