A fable by Sanjin Tulač, All rights reserved
One sunny morning in a large wood threatened by multiple urban developments, after a night of heavy toothache, a very important wolf named Aki had a vision:
"Wouldn't life be great if every animal in this kingdom brushed their teeth after each meal!?! Everybody would have healthy teeth, so we wouldn't need to pay for dental insurance, which would definitely help our bottom line!"
So at the next meeting with his staff of wolves, he told them:
"Within a month, each one of you will either prove that everybody in your neck of the woods is brushing their teeth at least twice a day, or I'll serve your head to the lions!"
A quite important wolf named Didi imagined his little head as a Lion's appetizer, and didn't like the image one tiny little bit.
So, the next week, Didi told his staff of wolves:
"In three weeks, we need to prove to Aki that we're all brushing teeth around here, or we'll all be gone. Any ideas?"
An almost-quite-important wolf named Sissy spoke up:
"Let's put up a teeth-brushing-dashboard that everyone can see!"
"Great, idea, Sissy! Why don't you have one of your folks set it up?"
Next week, Sissy was on vacation, but the week after that, he called up his staff of not-quite-so-important wolves to work on putting his great idea into practice.
"Guys, I have this great real-time-teeth-brushing-status-reporting-dashboard (RTTBSRD) idea, but we don't have much time: in two days RTTBSRD needs to prove that teeth are brushed all over Didi's neck of the woods, otherwise we can all tell goodby to our promised lambs!"
A not-quite-so-important wolf named Izzy said: "No sweat, boss! One of my guys invented an automated weekly-status-report-generator (AWSRG), so I'll have him tweek it a bit and you'll have your dashboard in no time..."
So, Izzy called for an urgent meeting next day with a really-not-important wolf named Dizzy, and his brilliant status-reporting genius fox named Lizzy.
"Guys, by the end of the day, the whole wood must see that teeth are being brushed around here! Now get to work and turn that AWSRG into a RTTBSRD!"
Dizzy and Lizzy readily answered: "Yes, boss!" and immediately went for lunch to brainstorm ideas for implementing RTTBSRD in record time.
When they came back, while Dizzy was sipping his single-large-soy-milk-capuccino, Lizzy made a copy of AWSRG and changed its title to RTTBSRD. The contents didn't require any changes - every indicator there was already green.
By the midnight deadline, all inhabitants of Aki's wood were notified that in Didi's neck of the woods, teeth brushing goal was achieved on time! Aki was happy, Didi was happy, Sissy was happy, Izzy was happy, Dizzy was happy and Lizzy was declared a hero.
Next day Didi called an all-animals meeting to honor Lizzy's heroic deed that showcased turning great vision into reality by superior execution.
And every animal in Didi's neck of the woods was trying hard to figure out what the heck RTTBSRD stood for... while their teeth brushing habits stayed happily undisturbed.
Moral: When delegating, clearly communicate objective of the task.
Disclaimer: while this fable has been inspired by some real events, any similarity with any living or dead people or animals is purely incidental!
