Stories that inspired me, Part -I I (Parable of the Two Draft Horses)

This is the one I have heard at many places, mostly in the management courses. I heard this first time during the AGM of ICPF Kolkata chapter. The strength of co-operation…………

Scene one
“A draft horse can pull between 1 to 3 tons…”

The he asked us, “What would you expect TWO draft horses to be able to pull?”

I am being a maths hons from St Xaviers who cleared it after two tries started applying all my knowledge.

1 horse can pull 1 to 3 tons, so
2(1×2) horses can pull 2 (1×2) to 6(3×2) tons, it was an easy math.

He smiled then we thought “ek aur ek garah�? (1+1=11), he smiled again. We were confused whether we are guessing more or less. He made the scene 2 clearer.

Scene 2
“A single draft horse can pull between 1 to 3 tons but TWO draft horses, in tandem, can pull somewhere in the vicinity of 12 to 14 tons.”

Wow that’s great (please read the disclaimer as well ), co-operation is truly a strength. The point that he was making was this - through co-operation and like-mindedness you will always be able to achieve more and achieve it quicker if you create a team and pull together.

The meeting ended and I was touched but the corporate world taught me one more scenario.

Scene 3
“Would you expect Three draft horses to be able to pull 3 times more?”, if you think then you must be a in management, if you do not agree then you are more practical. One figure will make you think more in depth,

“A single draft horse can pull between 1 to 3 tons and TWO draft horses, in tandem, can pull somewhere in the vicinity of 12 to 14 tons but three draft horse may not be able to pull even 5 tons together, sometimes not even 3tons.”

If your team is not optimized then more and more people will reduce your productivity, efficiency, effectiveness resulting in an utter failure.

Optimized team with cohesiveness attitude can achieve dramatic and awesome things, no wonder why Lagaan is taught in IIMs.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer : I haven’t varified the facts and figures , but for the point of his story it was irrelevant anyway.

2 Comments »

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1. Hmmmmmm….

   That’s why if we look at the corporate giants you always heard of Co-founders -

   Like-
   Google - Larry Page & Sergy Brin
   E Bay - Pierre Omidyar & Jeff Skoll
   Skype - Niklas Zennstrom & Janus Friis
   Yahoo - Jerry Yang & David Filo
   Wikipedia - Jimmy Wales & Larry Sanger

   and list goes on…….

   
   
   Rajesh Kumar Rana on October 18, 2005 - 11:08 pm @ 11:08 pm

2. MySQL - David Axmark and Michael “Monty” Widenius

   
   
   AjiNIMC on October 18, 2005 - 11:23 pm @ 11:23 pm

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