by Received the following today by e-mail from who knows where. Thought it
deserved a wider audience. Does it remind you of anything?
Well, it made me laugh anyway...
John
--
Rugby League - The Greatest Game on the Web
http://greatestgame.simplenet.com
Remove "nospam" from e-mail address to reply
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A Little Story - Heard it before?
An Australian company and a British company decided to have a canoe race.
Both teams practised hard and long to reach their peak performance before
the race.
On the big day, the Aussies won by a mile.
Afterwards, the British team became very discouraged and depressed.
The management of the British company decided that the reason for the
crushing defeat had to be found. A "Measurement Team," made up of
senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate
action.
Their conclusion was that the Australians had 8 people paddling and 1
person
steering, while the British had 1 person paddling and 8 people steering.
So the management of the British company hired a consulting company and
paid them incredible amounts of money. They advised that too many people
were steering the boat and not enough people were paddling.
To prevent losing to the Aussies again next year, the paddling team's
management structure was totally reorganised to 4 steering supervisors, 3
area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering
manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the
1 person paddling the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called
the "Paddling Team Quality First Program," with meetings, dinners and free
pens for the paddler. "We must give the paddler empowerment and enrichment
through this quality program."
The next year the Australian team won by 2 miles.
Humiliated, the management of the British company laid off the paddler
for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles
and cancelled all capital investments for new equipment. Then they used the
money saved by giving a High Performance Award to the steering managers
and distributed the rest of the money as bonuses to the senior executives.