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OCDP
Developmental Session #2
January
20, 2003 - 1400 - 1600 hrs
Richmond City Hall - Room 2.004
Guest Speaker - Mr. Bill King
Nova Organizational Development Group Inc.
Topic - Reviewing the eight core competencies of the RCMP at the
Officer level.
Mr. Bill King will provide an "expert", outsiders diagnosis of
the expectations of the 8 core competencies at the Officer
level. He will be conducting detailed research within this
subject matter to provide you with his thoughts and tips. This
insight will assist you in preparing yourself for the
examination and interview process
Mr. Bill King has presented leadership sessions at Richmond,
Surrey and Langley Detachments. He is currently delivering
leadership and team-building workshops for all Richmond
Detachment constables.
A Leadership
Story!
Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster.
They decided to settle the argument with a race. They agreed on a route and
started
off the race. 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.
He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook
him and soon
finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The hare woke up and
realized that
he'd lost the race. The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the
race.
This is the version of the story that we have all grown up with. But then
recently, someone
told me a more interesting version of this story. It continues....
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 had been overconfident, careless and
lax. If he had
not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him.
So he
challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed. This time, the
hare went all
out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles.
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/she does, the fast and reliable person will
consistently climb the
organizational ladder faster than the slow, methodical person. It's good to be
slow and steady;
but it's better to be fast and reliable.
But the story doesn't t end here. 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. He thought
for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly
different route.
The hare agreed. 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 couple of kilometers on the other side of the river.
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.
The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the
playing field
to suit your core competency. In an organization, if you are a good speaker,
make sure you
create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to
notice you.
If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a
report and send
it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will
also create
opportunities for growth and advancement.
The story still hasn't t ended.
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.
So they decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time.
They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the
riverbank. There, the
tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite
bank, the
hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together.
They both felt a
greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier.
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.
There are more lessons to be learnt from this story.....
1). Note that neither the hare nor the tortoise gave up after failures. The hare
decided to work
harder and put in more effort after his failure.
2). The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as
he could.
In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and
put in more
effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something
different. And
sometimes it is appropriate to do both.
3). The hare and the tortoise also learnt another vital lesson. When we stop
competing against
a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far
better.
When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was faced
with
intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke's growth. His
executives were
Pepsi-focused and intent on increasing market share 0.1 per cent a time.
Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete against the
situation
of 0.1 per cent growth. He asked his executives what was the average fluid
intake of an
American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke's share of that? Two
ounces.
Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market. The competition wasn't
Pepsi. It was
the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went into the remaining 12
ounces. The public
should reach for a Coke whenever they felt like drinking something.
To this end, Coke put up vending machines at many street corner. Sales took a
quantum jump
and Pepsi has never quite caught up since.
To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many things. Chief
among them are:
that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady; work to your
competencies; pooling
resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never
give up when
faced with failure; and finally, compete against the situation - not against a
rival.
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