Once upon a time, a consultant was exploring the backwoods of a tropical island. He soon became lost, exhausted and fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke, he found that he was immersed in a large pot filled with water. He also noticed natives were busy filling the pot with vegetables and herbs. Given his keen assessment ability, it was not long before the consultant realized that he was not only in time for dinner, but was also the main course.
Standing up in the pot, the consultant pleaded for his life and for the opportunity to serve the tribe: “Please, do not eat me. Instead, let me share the wisdom of my experience.” The tribe, getting hungry, asked, “What is an example of such wisdom that it is worth your life?”
The consultant, thinking about the maximum utility of assets, responded, “Well, I can bring you technology and ideas that will make you more efficient when you hunt for food. We call this wisdom “logic” in my country. It means that you use things in ways that return the greatest rewards. Spare my life, and I will show you ways to be more efficient hunters. This is the logical use of my life for your benefit.”
The tribal leaders huddled together and agreed that this “logic” made sense. They removed the consultant from the pot, had vegetable stew for dinner and asked him how to increase their village’s hunting efficiency.
The consultant watched as they hunted. He noticed that scouts went ahead in teams. Often they would be gone for days, venturing into new territory to locate new herds and bigger game. When they found game, most of the team would surround the animals, keeping them in check while messengers would run to get other teams to help. Once together, they would work to kill what they could carry and bring back to camp. A village bar-b-que would last for days, and the skins would provide clothing for most of the village.
The consultant suggested that this was inefficient and thus illogical. Not wanting to be illogical, the tribe asked, “What should we do?” The consultant replied, “This is simple. Send out single scouts each with a drum. When small game is found, the scout will beat his drum once, and a few of the closest men will come help while others can still spend time looking for other game. Beat it twice if it is medium game, and more will come. Three times if it is really big game or many animals, and all the other scouts should come running.”
This sounded logical and the tribe put this system, which they called “drum-mail” into place.
However, it wasn’t long before this hunting plan began to have problems. While a single scout could move faster alone, he couldn’t explore as far, since he needed to be within hearing range of other scouts. Carrying drums also meant carrying fewer weapons. This, combined with the inability of a team to immediately respond, resulted in many animals escaping before the others could get there. They also found that when different scouts hit their drums at the same time, the others didn’t know how to respond. And when the drum heads broke, there was no way to communicate at all.
The tribe came to the consultant and asked what to do. Rather than change the plan, he replied, “It is logical to accept these problems. When the drums are broken, simply accept this as “down time.” This is the price of efficiency. Sometimes hunting just stops and you have to accept the fact you might lose game while drums are being repaired or when other scouts can’t respond fast enough.” The consultant went on to explain that going hungry at times, reducing explorations and having the tribe frustrated with the leaders were simply inconveniences for the sake of logical efficiency.
The tribal leaders looked at each other and in unity, nodded their heads. At last they fully understood the logic. Then they ate the consultant.
The Moral? Efficiency should never be accepted if it compromises effectiveness or potential gains. It only works when it is designed to meet the greatest vision and allows for the pursuit of greater game. (Another moral? Consultants should be wary of offering food for thought…and vise versa.)