The lion and the ant: A managerial lesson
Posted on June 9, 2016 by Dave Berkus
This story has been making the rounds lately, and I confess that our research cannot
find the source. So, with thanks to whomever created this great little parable, here it is:
“Every 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’t she produce more if she had a
supervisor!
So the lion recruited a cockroach who had extensive experience as a supervisor and
who was famous for writing excellent reports. The cockroach’s 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.
[Email readers, continue here…] The Lion was delighted with the cockroach’s 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.
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 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.
The department where the ant works is now a sad place, where nobody laughs
anymore and everybody has become upset. 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’s department, the lion found out that the production was
much less than before – 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 “The Department is overstaffed.”
Guess who the lion fired first?
The Ant of course “Because she showed lack of motivation and had a negative
attitude.”
So the lesson is obvious. And we see examples every day. 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.
We often ignore the ants in our work lives, thinking – perhaps subconsciously – 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.
So in this story, was the lion guilty of just that form of managerial thinking? Why not
see the obvious? Just add more ants, hopefully as resourceful as the first? Or is it more
complex? We learn from our experience and education that growth comes from “top–
grading” at all levels of the organization. And that the bottom ten percent of the
workforce must be replaced, as we hire “A” players.
The story is meant to illustrate one folly of common management. I’d 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.
Be a better lion. Watch for what’s great in each and every ant.
The Ant Story & Just the
Ant’s Story
sandeep singh
Dec 29, 2018·5 min read
When you hear or read quotes likes “Change is only constant”,
“Change or perish”, “Change or be a Nokia”, you are made to
believe that change is so imperative and organizations should be
so desperate to change & adapt. Yes, there are organizations
which are such and even within the organizations which are not,
there are individuals or even principals who are. But then, there is
a set of management/executives who are holed up in their small,
cozy world. And for them, you, as a change agent, are nothing but
a shit load of additional, jazzy, non-value add work driver. They
often take respite in “The Ant Story”. You haven’t heard? You
would have, one or other time. Let me Crtl + V it for you here —
The Ant Story
Every day, a small ant arrived at work early and starting 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’t she produce more if she had a supervisor!
So the lion recruited a cockroach who had extensive experience
as a supervisor and who was famous for writing excellent reports.
The cockroach’s 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.
The lion was delighted with the cockroach’s 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.
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 new person in
charge, the cicada, also needed a computer and a personal
assistant, whom he had brought from his previous department to
help him prepare a work and budget control strategic optimization
plan.
The department where the ant works is now a sad place, where
nobody laughs anymore and everybody has become upset. It was
at that time the cicada convinced the boss, the lion, to start a
climatic study of the office environment. Having reviewed the
charges of running the ant’s department, the lion found out that
the production was much less than before 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 “The department is overstaffed.”
Guess who the lion fired first?
The ant of course “Because she showed lack of motivation and
had a negative attitude.
Just The Ant Story
This story is awesome satire on ill-managed change management
exercise, but i am sure, change is often resisted under the same
blanket, be it well managed or not. Here is my take on this story —
The Lion’s Narrative
Lion had a set of advisers who have been keeping watch over
developments in neighboring Jungle. Over a period of time, Lion
had been advised that improved way of working in neighborhood
is driving their outputs rapidly and even their ants are working
more efficiency as they were more organized and output driven.
After understanding more about their neighbor’s secrets, lion got
worried as unless they were able to work more efficiently and in
more collaborative manner, soon they shall be outperformed and
his jungle would be starved off due to less produces. Worried with
this, lion sought to improve the situation to inculcate a result
oriented jungle rather than a existing effort oriented jungle. Thus,
began the work. He poached few good performing executives
from neighborhood to their head various animal groups, including
a cockroach to head their Ant’s department. Ant department was
one of the most overworked, yet least productive team. Reason —
they were awesome at lifting loads, they could lift & carry loads
many times their own weight but they didn’t have a sense of
direction. Days after days, they would end up being at the same
location without much result. Thus, the lion thought of hiring
someone with great vision who could help them with directions.
His team zeroed on cockroach — Yeppie ! It made perfect sense
as, although many parts of a cockroach’s anatomy are fairly
primitive, their eyes are quite advanced, giving them almost 360-
degree vision of the world around them.
Ants going in circles ( Image Source: http://kevinstilley.com/going-in-circles/)
But instead of seeing this an opportunity to better their output, ant
saw it as demeaning of her efforts. In spite of multiple discussions
with cockroach, she didn't work as earlier. She took respite in
negative mudding sessions, demotivating herself & others. This
continued for long.. but how long could it have continued for.. This
was at that time the cicada convinced the boss, the lion, to start a
climatic study of the office environment. Having reviewed the
charges of running the ant’s department, the lion found out that
the production was much less than before 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 “The department is overstaffed.”
Guess who the lion fired first?
The ant of course “Because she showed lack of motivation and
had a negative attitude.
Learning — Narratives aren't independent but often told to suit
narrator’s point of view.And Yeah ! — Change.. or perish !!!!
