Have you heard the story of " The Washer man and
the Foolish Donkey" ?
To refresh your memory, and for the benefit of those who have not grown up
listening to this moral story, it goes like this…
There was once a washer man who had a donkey and a dog. One night when the
whole world was sleeping, a thief broke into the house, the washer man was fast
asleep but the donkey and the dog were awake. The dog decided not to bark since
the master did not take good care of him and wanted to teach him a lesson. The
donkey got worried and said to the dog that if he doesn't bark, the donkey will
have to do something himself. The dog did not change his mind and the donkey
started braying loudly. Hearing the donkey bray, the thief ran away, the master
woke up and started beating the donkey for braying in the middle of the night
for no reason.
Moral of the story "One must not engage in duties other than his own"
Now take a new look at the same story…(this ones really good)
The
washer man
was a well educated man from a premier
management institute. He had the fundas of looking at the bigger picture and
thinking out of the box. He was convinced that there must be some reason for
the donkey to bray in the night. He walked outside a little and did some fact
finding, applied a bottom up approach, figured out from the ground realities
that there was a thief who broke in and the donkey only wanted to alert him
about it. Looking at the donkey's extra initiative and going beyond the call of
the duty, he rewarded him with lot of hay and other perks and became his
favorite pet. The dog's life didn't change much, except that now the donkey was
more motivated in doing the dogs duties as well. In the annual appraisal the
dog managed a "
meets requirement
"
. Soon the dog realized that the donkey is taking care of his duties and he can
enjoy his life sleeping and lazing around. The donkey was rated as " star
performer". The donkey had to live up to his already high performance
standards. Soon he was over burdened with work and always under pressure and
now is looking for a job rotation…
Disclaimer:
All characters in the story are not at all imaginary. Any resemblance to person
living or dying of work is purely intentional.
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