STORY TIME

LEARN WITH FUN

SHIKHAGUPTAONLINE CLASSES

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A VIDEO INTRODUCTION:

• Even Chimps Learn to Work Together!!!

• Team Communication Is Important

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Good old lessons in teamwork
from an age-old fable

The Tortoise
And
The Hare

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Once upon a time a tortoise and
a hare had an argument about
who was faster.

That’s not true.

The fastest runner is
me!

I’m the fastest

runner.

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They decided to settle
the argument with a
race. They agreed on
a route and started off Fine!
the race.

Ok, let’s have

a race.

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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.

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He sat under the tree and soon fell
asleep.

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The tortoise plodding on
overtook him and soon finished
the race, emerging as the
undisputed champ.

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The hare woke up and realized that
he'd lost the race.

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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.

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THE STORY CONTINUES …

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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
Why did I
had been overconfident, lose the
careless and lax. If he had race?

not taken things for

granted, there's no way the
tortoise could have beaten
him.

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So he challenged the
tortoise to another
race. The tortoise
Ok.
agreed.

Can we have
another race?

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

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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.

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BUT THE STORY DOESN'T END
HERE …

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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
against
the hare?

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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 we’ll go through a
different route.

Sure!

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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 mile on the other side of the
river.

Goal

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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?

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The moral of the story?

First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit
your core competency.

Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will also create
opportunities for growth and advancement.

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THE STORY STILL HASN'T ENDED …

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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.

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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?

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They started off, and this time the hare carried
the tortoise till the riverbank.

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There, the tortoise took over and swam
across with the hare on his back.

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On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the
tortoise and they reached the finish line together.
They both felt a greater sense of satisfaction than
they'd felt earlier.

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The moral of the story?

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.
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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
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WHAT IS A
TEAM?
•Two or more individuals
with a high degree of
interdependence geared
toward the achievement of
a goal or the completion of
a task.

•Teams make decisions,

solve problems, provide
support, accomplish
missions, and plan their
work.

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TEAM = Together Everyone Achieves More

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Coming together,
sharing together,
working together,
succeeding together.

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“ The era of the rugged individual is giving way to the era of the team player. Everyone is
needed, but no one is necessary.” - Bruce Coslet, Coach, Bengals

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“ Effective teamwork will not take the
place of knowing how to do the job or
how to manage the work. Poor
teamwork, however,
can prevent effective final
performance. And it can also prevent
team members from gaining
satisfaction in being a member of a
team and the organization.”
- Robert F. Bales

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“Teamwork represents a set of
values that encourage behaviors
such as listening and
constructively responding to points
of view expressed by others,
giving others the benefit of the
doubt, providing support to those
who need it, and recognizing the
interests and achievements of
others.”
- Katzenbach &
Smith

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Getting good players is easy. Getting them to play
together is the hard part.
Casey Stengel

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Wearing the same shirts
doesn't make you a
team
- Buchholz and Roth

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When we have a sense of community and focus,
we create trust and can help each other to achieve
our goals.

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A goal is a dream with a deadline. 
- Napoleon Hill

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“ Individual commitment to a group effort — that is what makes a team work a company
work, a society work, a civilization work.”
- Vince Lombardi (1913-1970), football coach for the NFL

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If we had as much sense as geese we
would stay in formation with those headed
where we want to go. We are willing to
accept their help and give our help to
others.

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A team is more than a collection of people. It is a
process of give and take.
- Barbara Glacel & Emile Robert Jr.

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A group becomes a team
when each member is sure
enough of himself and his
contribution to praise the
skills of the others.

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No problem is insurmountable.
With a little courage, teamwork
and determination a person can overcome anything.
B. Dodge

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“ The strength of the team is each individual member...the strength of each member is
the team.”
- Coach Phil Jackson Chicago Bulls

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“Conflict is inevitable in a team ... in fact, to achieve synergistic solutions, a variety of ideas and
approaches are needed. These are the ingredients for conflict.”
- Susan Gerke, IBM, Leadership Development

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Thomas Edison, when asked why he had a team of twenty-one
assistants, “If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.”

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The way to get good ideas is to
get lots of ideas, and throw the
bad ones away. 
~Linus Pauling

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Teamwork divides the task and
doubles the success.

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Synergy is the highest activity of life;
it creates new untapped alternatives;
it values and exploits the mental,
emotional, and psychological differences
between people.
- Stephen Covey

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The key elements in the art of
working together are how to deal with
change, how to deal with conflict, and
how to reach our potential...the needs
of the team are best met when we
meet the needs of individuals persons.
Max DePree

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When a team outgrows individual
performance and learns team
confidence, excellence becomes
a reality.
- Joe Paterno

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Synergy — the bonus that is achieved when
things work together harmoniously.
- Mark Twain

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It is amazing how much you
can accomplish when it
doesn't matter who gets the
credit.

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