jdhelm
Champion Author
Iowa
Posts:11,863
Points:1,198,910
Joined:Dec 2009
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Message Posted: Nov 11, 2010 11:15:46 AM
America and China decided to engage in a competitive boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance.
On the big day of the race they both felt ready. The boat from China won by a mile!
Afterward, the American team was discouraged by the loss and morale sagged severely. Congress decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so they hired a consulting firm for $3 billion to investigate the problem and recommend corrective action.
The consultant’s findings:
A. The Chinese team had eight people rowing and one person steering.
B. The American team had one person rowing and eight people steering.
After a year of study and billions of dollars spent on research and analyzing the problem, the consulting firm concluded to Congress, that too many people were steering and not enough were rowing on the American team.
So, as race day neared again for the rematch the following year, the American team’s management structure was completely reorganized by a Congressional mandate.
The new structure:
a. four Steering Managers,
b. three Area Steering Managers,
c. one Staff Steering Manager,
d. and a new Performance Review System for the person rowing the boat - (to provide work incentive - of course).
That second race resulted in the Chinese winning by TWO miles!
Humiliated, Congress in it's infinate wisdom, laid off the rower for poor performance, and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the problem.
I suppose many of you know a company like this. You might even work for one. God forbid you work for a US congressman.
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