The Story of “the Lion and the ANT”

a story that all management need to comprehend and learn from Training Material | March 2015

and the concept of management quad

Every day, an Ant arrived at work early and started

work immediately ..

She was very productive and

happy too ..

Observing this, the Chief,

a Lion, was surprised to see that the

ant was working without

supervision !

He thought if the ant could do so

much work without

supervision ..

how much more would she be

able to accomplish with

a supervisor?

So the Lion hired a Cockroach,

who had extensive

experience as a supervisor & who was famous for

writing excellent reports ..

The Cockroach's first decision

was to set up a “time-clock” attendance

system ..

The Cockroach needed a secretary (a bee)

to help him write and type

his reports and ...

... he recruited a Spider, to manage the achieves and

monitor all phone calls ..

The Lion was happy with the work progress and

delighted with the Cockroach's reports and asked him to produce graphs to

describe production rates and analyse trends, so that he

could use them for presentations at

board meetings ..

... so the Cockroach needed to buy a new computer & a laser

printer, and supporting software and devices..

and ..

... recruited a Fly to manage

the IT department.

... The Ant, who had once been so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings which used up most of her time and affected her work levels ... ! She was no longer very happy ..

The Lion felt 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,

who’s 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. & a personal assistant;

who he brought from his previous department, to help him prepare reports & Optimisation plans ...

The department where the Ant

worked became a sad place,

where nobody laughed

anymore and everybody had become upset ..

It was at that time the Cicada convinced the

chief (Lion) to start a study of the working environment.

.. having reviewed the

report, the Lion saw a decline in productivity in

the Ant’s department..

So he recruited the Owl, a

prestigious and renowned

consultant to carry out a

comprehensive audit and suggest

solutions ..

The Owl spent 3 months in the department and came up with an

enormous report, in several volumes, that concluded:

“The department is overstaffed ..”

Guess who the Lion fired first ?

The Ant, of course!

… because it was reported that she “showed lack of

motivation and had a negative attitude towards organisation processes.”

.. that was the end of “the Lion and the Ant” story ..

but similar stories continue under different themes and

excuses in work environments and organisations !!

The story reflects the reality of many management

practices and cultures in organisations today ..

But let’s analyse

the “Lion’s” objectives and what he was trying to

achieve ..

The objective from the Lion’s perspective

aimed to improve the level,

efficiency and effectiveness of

the Ant’s performance

(at least from our

perception!)

Apparently, the management

approach followed by the “Lion” and his team was of an

authoritative; command and control nature rather than a

“motivation and encouragement”

approach.

The Lion and his team demonstrated great interest in employing management concepts of governance,

organisation structure, performance management,

audit and control, etc…

but they have fallen into the trap of bureaucratic

management and administrative red tape..

and they ended up paying attention to consecutive

tasks resulting from decisions that were not linked to written and defined objectives!

Can this explain the frustration and negative behavior that appeared

in the “Ant” ??

It may be that the «Ant» was suspicious about the new systems and procedures and thought that it might have been questioning her work abilities or even a lack of confidence in her capabilities? Or that because she was not informed and aware enough of what was going on around her, it contributed to her isolation from work and a reason for her passivity!!

Can we get some clearer excuses for the Ant at least?!

But! .. wasn’t there any other option for the “Lion” prior to his decision?

Among the many questions that arise if we attempt to analyse the story, is the fact that the Lion could have achieved the same set of goals through: (1) Increasing the

number of Ants for example, or ..

(2) by consulting the Ant itself in what can be done .. as she had the cognitive knowledge about her own work ..

We still wonder though about: whether the “Lion” was aware of what made the Ant energetic and effective, prior to his first decision? Or was it a pure guesstimate-based decision?

What leadership & management teams need to understand

is that:

“the decision-making process in organisations can not be based on

guesswork ..”

There is no such thing called the

logic of guessing in management!!

The story in its entirety, refers to the importance of focusing on the final desired results at all times .. And that in the absence of such focus, the organisation may get itself strategically deviated and start implementing and getting engaged in activities that were created from none! Add to this the efforts, time, and budgets that run along such activities!

Management is like building an electronic circuit .. In order to light up the bulb, all individual electronic components must be integrated to achieve such a goal!!

The management circuit similar to an electric circuit, can’t achieve its organisational objectives without the incorporation of the four management

dimensions: [management quad]!

Objectives definition

Conduct reviews

consistently

Delegation and empowerment

RESULTs Focus

Management Quad:

Developing and strengthening institutional values, based on ownership, responsibility, trust, respect and appreciation.

Setting goals with the involvement of workers in the performance development plans and programs and in setting targets, as they will be the one who make the ground work at the end,

Continuous review and monitoring of the strategy and policies to ensure that they support implementation plans and performance levels sought to be achieved.

Promote a culture of respect &

responsibility

Delegate and empower employees and support them to achieve organizational and personal objectives and consistently ensure their understanding of their roles and responsibilities..

where management need to pay attention ..

Copyright: Dr. Ali M. Al-Khouri

Remember: Leadership & management roles can not be imagined to be about the “level of authority” or the “extent of monitoring and control” they impose in their work environments !!

The strength of institutional pillars depends on the awareness levels of the leadership and management teams of their primary roles of developing and supporting a performance driven work culture and continuously seek to help workers overcome obstacles that may hinder them from doing their jobs ..

Remember: “There is no one recipe for success .. but the lessons we can draw from experiences remain an important source of building and developing our practices ..”

But let’s analyse “Lion’s”

objectives an what he was trying to achieve

..

Note: “all the characters in the story are fictitious.. and any resemblance between them and reality is purely

coincidental.”

Dr. Ali M. Al-KhouriProfessor and Fellow, British Institute of Technology

and E-commerce – London, United Kingdom

@DrAliAlKhouri

Email: alkhouriali@gmail.com Slide Share: Slideshare.net\dralkhouri Academia: academia.org\dralkhouri

References: Noone, J. (2010) The Lion ad Ant: Some Lessons for Managers and HR. http://goo.gl/TbTzJi