Never Loose Committed persons

A Panchatantra story -- Dog and Donkey – Never loose committed persons.

Story:

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 too 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.

Old moral “One must not engage in duties other than his own". The lesson: Mind your job.

Another thought to the same story which I came across while searching in the google:

The washer man was a well educated man from a premier management institute. He wanted to look at the bigger picture and think 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 dog's duties as well. In the annual appraisal the dog managed "ME" (Met Expectations) .

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 NEW JOB...

My observations is as follows:

1.      The dog did not bark because he felt that he was not treated properly. He wanted to teach the master a lesson. Dissatisfaction breeds inefficiency.

2.      The donkey went an extra mile and was proactive. The donkey had the sense of ownership and wanted to protect his master and his other property. Going that extra mile shows responsibility or “the ability to respond”

3.      Reaction does not help but demoralizes (the master beating the donkey). Therefore the donkey decided not to interfere and started thinking “mind your job”. This reaction resulted in breeding self-centered and self fish attitude.

4.      Later with new provoking thoughts of different schools of management the master with professional knowledge learnt that reaction is not good and started to ponder on the cause and tried to understand the fundamental reasons of the donkey braying. This is thinking otherwise, or looking withdifferent lens, or different perspective, thanks to education.

5.      Praising the donkey and offering the incentive is motivating but …..Only to some extent.

6.      The result of excessive motivation is:

·         Performer becomes “star performer”;

·         He/she is pushed to work beyond his or her physical and emotional capacity – leading to distress.

·         The dog is made more lazy and and useless resource. While one person overworks the other person walks away with an income without commitment.

·         Work and you are given more work; you are given more and more work till you decide to leave the present master – like the donkey in the story.

The result the master looses committed employee (the donkey) and will be left with lazy people like the dogs.

The master should have sent the disloyal dog in the first instant and searched for a new dog.

Commitment and Loyalty cannot be equated to money value.