Fables for the boardroom

I have begun to ponder about the simple lessons or should I say elemental lessons that are to be learned from the fables that were written so many years ago and read to children as babies.  I wonder if we have lost that practice of reading these classics to our children…again and again until the story becomes part of our deep cognitive pathways that guide our actions as adults.  There is a richness to the stories that were told, some with no author definitively identified as if they arose from time eternal to ensure our future.

Take for example, the story of the Three Little Pigs.  I read that nursery rhyme more times than I can remember.  It is a story full of lessons that board rooms can embrace and C-Suites should follow.  It is a story whose lesson goes beyond the value of hard work.  Yes, two of the pigs took an easier route, one of straw and one of stick.  They did this and then spent time doing other things while the third pig labored to build one of stone.  But it was more than just hard work that was the ticket to eventual success.  If there was no wolf, eventually the stick and straw houses would have succumbed to some other danger…wind and fire are two that come to mind.  It was the fact that the third pig was building something to last in the environment it was located.  It involved hard work but also foresight and critical thinking.   

In the board room there is a healthy tension on the two critical elements that should shape all discussions - growth and risk.  I could build a bigger house or build it faster or even cheaper if I built it with sticks.  The quality of the build is also important and what value do we place on the quality of the people who are the builders.  What is the risk involved in building too slow or too fast.

The pig who built the house with brick knew there were wolves and weather that had to be addressed.  The pig also knew how to build the house properly and with the right materials.

Does your company have the elements needed to succeed against the wolves in your business?  Are you balancing the need for growth with a healthy understanding of the risk to longterm viability?

When the wolf finally arrives…and they always do…for a day of reckoning, and they huff and they puff will they blow your house down?