There was once this man who happened to live in a small, remote village. Each day, the man would wake up and be steadily perplexed on how he could become wise. As he made his way walking through the village, he’d ask those who he came into contact with if they happened to know how he could become wise. Day in and day out, the man’s daily routine remained the same.
One day, as the man was wandering through the village still pondering how he could become wise, he ran into a person he had never seen before. So he asked this individual if he knew how he could become wise. The unknown gentleman said that he didn’t but that there was a wizard who lived deep in the forest on top of the highest mountain within the mountain range that bordered the village. He said that the wizard on the mountain would know how to become wise.
The next morning, the man arose and began on his journey to find the wizard in the mountain. The walk was intense as he had to travel across rivers and streams as well as make his way through dense vegetation. Finally, the man made it to a cabin way up in the mountain hidden so that others wouldn’t find it.
Upon cautiously approaching the cabin, the man knocked on the old wooden door. A few seconds later, the door began to open and, on the other side, was the wizard that the man had been seeking. The wizard asked the man how he found the wizard’s cabin and what brought the man to seek out the wizard. The man excitedly told the wizard that he had been searching for how he might become wise and that he had been told that the wizard would be able to help him.
The wizard became alive with excitement as he proclaimed, “indeed I can!” as he turned and walked quickly back into the cabin. Inside the wizard reached up to grab a glass bottle that contained a duck from off the fireplace mantel. With the bottle, he made his way back to the curious visitor and proceeded to hand him the bottle.
As the man held and looked at the bottle, the wizard instructed him to take the bottle home with him and figure out a way to get the duck out of the bottle without harming the duck or the bottle. The wizard told the man to come back tomorrow to let the wizard know of his solution.
The next day, the man again made his way to the wizard’s cabin. Once there, he told the wizard that he suggested they cut the bottom of the glass bottle in order to retrieve the duck. The wizard quickly said “oh no, we can’t do that as I need the bottle to remain undamaged!”. With that, the wizard told the man to once again go home and come back tomorrow with a solution.
The next morning, the man made his way once more back to the wizard’s cabin. When the wizard answered the door, the man offered that they should gently lower a small rope into the bottle and secure the duck with a noose tied into the rope. Once the duck was secured, they would be able to gently pull the duck out of the bottle. Again, the wizard frantically stated that “doing so would injure the duck, and I don’t want to harm my duck!”. Once more the wizard told the man to go back home and return tomorrow with a solution.
As the man made his way back to the wizard’s cabin the next morning, he was still stuck as to how he could get the duck out of the bottle. Once again, the wizard opened the door after the man knocked. The wizard asked the man, “well, have you found a solution?”. The man hung his head as he still didn’t have an answer and handed the duck in the bottle back to the wizard. This confused the wizard, so he asked “what’s this?”. To which the man said that he had come to the conclusion that it wasn’t his duck, it wasn’t his bottle, so it wasn’t his problem. As he turned in defeat to return home, the wizard enthusiastically began to celebrate as he told the man that “you have now become wise!”.
Practical Applications For Leaders
While I doubt that none of us will ever be challenged to find a solution to removing a duck from a bottle without harming either, each of us are regularly faced with our own version of this challenge. As such, there’s a few things that we can learn from this story.
As an organizational leader, you probably have problems brought to you on an almost daily basis. These issues could be wide-ranging and involve matters within your organization, challenges with clients, customers, or patients, and even personal matters that your employees may be going through. Some of these problems may be easy to resolve while others may seem to be impossible to remedy no matter how hard you try. The first lesson we must learn as a leader, like the man in the above story, is that every problem brought to us isn’t our problem to find a solution to. In these events, we must give the problem back to its rightful owner for them to resolve.
Secondly, in conflicting situations between either two of your employees or between an employee and a customer, client, or patient, the disputing parties are often aware of solutions to resolve the issue. This doesn’t mean that the problem won’t be brought to you to deal with but it does lead to the notion that, as a leader, it’s your job to help the warring parties to defuse the emotions to the point that they are able to think logically again. In these cases, your role as the leader is to patiently and graciously work with both parties to calm their frustrations, validate their concerns, and help lead them to a mutual and amicable solution.
Thirdly, like the wizard, organizational leaders should set the parameters in which agency conflicts should be resolved. In this case, it may involve the leader informing the disputing parties what organizational policies may mandate as a way to establish the overall framework from which the individuals can reach a resolution within. The wizard’s instructions were that neither the duck or the bottle should be harmed. Similar instructions from an organizational standpoint could easily be that neither the workplace culture nor the customer, client, or patient should be harmed in addition to other aspects that should not be negatively impacted, such as product/service delivery, organizational performance, and production. By establishing these guidelines the leader should empower the parties to creatively come to a resolution.
Conclusion
Regardless of whether we may want to admit it or not, all organizations have people problems. Statistics suggest that organizational managers spent approximately 20 - 40% of their time on such conflicts - this is the equivalent to 2 ½ - 5 months every single year! While there are definitely times where the leader should take control and find a solution, a vast majority of organizational problems could be handled at lower employee levels provided that they were afforded the proper guidance, flexibility, and creativity. Truly effective leaders realize this and work with their subordinates to develop these type resolution skills.
What will you do next time that you’re handed a duck in a bottle?
Comments