{"id":4865,"date":"2022-02-24T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2022-02-24T18:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=4865"},"modified":"2024-09-07T09:04:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T16:04:37","slug":"the-lion-and-the-ant-a-managerial-lesson-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/?p=4865","title":{"rendered":"The lion and the ant: A managerial lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"This story has turned out to be one of the most enduring posts ever for me, well worth repeating.\u00a0 And what a lesson for us all.\u00a0 I confess that our research cannot find its source.\u00a0 So, with thanks to whomever originally created this great little parable, here it is:<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

\u201cEvery day, a small Ant arrived at work early and started work immediately, she produced a lot and she was happy. The boss, a lion, was surprised to see that the ant was working without supervision. He thought if the ant can produce so much without supervision, wouldn\u2019t she produce more if she had a supervisor!<\/em><\/p>\n

So the lion recruited a cockroach who had extensive experience as a supervisor and who was famous for writing excellent reports. The cockroach\u2019s first decision was to set up a clocking in attendance system. He also needed a secretary to help him write and type his reports. He recruited a spider who managed the archives and monitored all phone calls.<\/em><\/p>\n

[Email readers, continue here\u2026]\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0The Lion was delighted with the cockroach\u2019s report and asked him to produce graphs to describe production rates and analyze trends so that he could use them for presentations at board meetings, so the cockroach had to buy a new computer and a laser printer and recruit a fly to manage the IT department. The Ant, who had been once so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings which used up most of her time.<\/em><\/p>\n

The lion came to the conclusion that it was high time to nominate a person in charge of the department where the ant worked. The position was given to the Cicada whose first decision was to buy a carpet and an ergonomic chair for his office. The<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>new person in charge, the cicada, also needed a computer and a personal assistant, who he had brought from his previous department, to help him prepare a work and budget control strategic optimization plan.<\/em><\/p>\n

The department where the ant works is now a sad place, where nobody laughs anymore\"\" and everybody has become upset.\u00a0 It was at that time the cicada convinced the boss, The Lion to start a climatic study of the environment. Having reviewed the charges of running the ant\u2019s department, the lion found out that the production was much less than before \u2013 so he recruited the Owl, a prestigious and renowned consultant, to carry out an audit and suggest solutions. The owl spent 3 months in the department and came out with an enormous report, in several volumes, that concluded that \u201cThe Department is overstaffed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Guess who the lion fired first?<\/em><\/p>\n

The Ant of course \u201cBecause she showed lack of motivation and had a negative attitude.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So the lesson is obvious.\u00a0 And we see examples every day.\u00a0 We build our companies with layers of management in the natural course of growth, often quoting that a manager should have no more than six direct reports, or that managers should be freed to do the important, high value work.<\/p>\n

We often ignore the ants in our work lives, thinking \u2013 perhaps subconsciously \u2013 that value equates to salary level, or lowest level workers can be replaced. Or best of all, management generates creative output and pushes that creativity down to the worker ants in the organization whose job is to work, not think.<\/p>\n

So in this story, was the lion guilty of just that form of managerial thinking?\u00a0 Why not see the obvious?\u00a0 Just add more ants, hopefully as resourceful as the first?\u00a0 Or is it more complex?\u00a0 We learn from our experience and education that growth comes from \u201ctop\u2013grading\u201d at all levels of the organization. And that the bottom ten percent of the workforce must be replaced, as we hire \u201cA\u201d players.<\/p>\n

The story is meant to illustrate one folly of common management.\u00a0 I\u2019d take it as a beautiful warning to all of us that some things are obvious in business, and that we should focus on what works and reinforce that whenever we see it working.<\/p>\n

Be a better lion. Watch for what\u2019s great in each and every ant.<\/p>\n

————————————————————————<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Responses to The lion and the ant: A managerial lesson<\/em><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. \n
    \n
    \"\"David J McNeil<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    \n

    Is there anyone who HASN\u2019T seen exactly this scenario play out?\u2026. Thanks to Dave Berkus for the reminder.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n
  3. \n
    \n
    \"\"Yaniv<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    \n

    To answer your question, Dave, about the source of the parable, it is the Ant, of course. The same Ant with whom the Lion should have consulted, prior to embarking on a misguided effort to replicate her success. Poor thing had to write this parable and broadcast it through social media, just to get her point across. All the Lion had to do was talk to her first, to understand her motivation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  4. \n
    \n
    \"\"Rick Munson<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    \n

    Dave and all, thank for the valuable lessons in the life of business. What a wonderful world it would be if we were always open to be teachable and in remembrance of our important life experiences. Awareness, acceptance, action and allowance with a good attitude.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  5. \n
    \n
    \"\"Gary Skraba<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    \n

    Outstanding way to put this tendency into perspective!<\/p>\n

    Plus, Yaniv is right on the mark: lions really need to get to know their star ant(s) and consider the ramifications of such changes, even if they are consistent with \u201caccepted practices\u201d, which is a lazier approach to process improvement than actually thinking through individual situations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
  6. \n
    \n
    \"\"Cricket Lee<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    \n

    Always great!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  7. \n
  8. \n
    \n
    \"\"Alex<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    \n

    It is unfortunate that the producer gets kick out and the swivel chair managers remained, end result :zero production<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  9. \n
    \n
    \"\"Mervin<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    <\/div>\n
    \n

    Thank you for this excellent article. The information has actually
    \ncurrently assisted me with my task where I was
    \nstuck as well as didn\u2019t recognize exactly what to
    \ndo as following action. Eagerly anticipating
    \nyour next messages!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  10. \n
  11. \n
    \n
    \"\"Kala Sridhar<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    \n

    Very impactful story.
    \nAbsolutely right.
    \nLions need to recognize the efforts of the ants performers and encourage them.
    \nSuperb corporate lesson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  12. \n
    \n
    \"\"Anu Prabhakar<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    \n

    This one is the best context ever read about the truth going on these days in corporate offices. Yes of course most hard working honest employees are always the sufferers and those who work less and boast more get benefited. And the mobile shop keepers selling such ideas as were followed in lion\u2019s office earn much much more than any one. Maintaining urgent records is different. But making least required reports for the sake of cunning ideas only mars the efficiency of intelligent hard working employees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

  13. \n
    \n
    \"\"Jose<\/cite>\u00a0says:<\/span><\/div>\n
    \n

    The Ant doesn\u2019t need the Lion, or the cockroach or anyone else for that matter. Just some feedback from fellow ants on what\u2019s working<\/p>\n

    Images created using MS Designer (DALL-e-3) in 2024. – DWB<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This story has turned out to be one of the most enduring posts ever for me, well worth repeating.\u00a0 And what a lesson for us all.\u00a0 I confess that our research cannot find its source.\u00a0 So, with thanks to whomever … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,20,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-depending-upon-others","category-protecting-the-business","category-surrounding-yourself-with-talent"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4865"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5724,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4865\/revisions\/5724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berkonomics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}