There once lived a monkey and an elephant, in a faraway jungle who was best
friends. The two of them did everything together. Suddenly one day an unusual and
somewhat heated disagreement between the two had broken out who contributed
more to their exploits. The monkey had told the elephant that it was better to be
fast, flexible, and agile. The elephant argued it was much better to be strong. The
two of them simply couldn’t agree. So they went to the wise owl of the jungle and
asked him.
The owl pointed to a tall tree far across the river with a unique fruit towards the top
of its large trunk. He told the monkey and the elephant that when they bring that
fruit from the tree back to him he would answer their question. The two friends
argued that it would be next to impossible to get the fruit, but they agreed to try.
As they to the banks of the river the monkey realized that the river was too deep.
When the elephant reached the river he just charged in the river towards the tree.
Once there the elephant tried to reach the fruit but the fruit was too high, and when
the elephant tried to knock it down with its strength the tree being so big it
wouldn’t budge. So the elephant went back to the banks where the monkey was
waiting.
Once together again the elephant told the monkey to jump on his back and they
would successfully cross the river together. Once they reached the tree, the
monkey climbed the tree and was able to successfully pick the fruit. Then the
monkey climbed down with the fruit, sat on the elephants back, and rested as they
made their journey back to deliver the fruit to the wise owl. The owl asked, “Of the
two of you, which one brought the fruit to me?” The monkey loudly declared he had
because he was the one who had actually plucked the fruit. The elephant strongly
argued that he had because without his help the monkey would have never gotten
to the other side of the river.
It was at that point that the owl stopped the argument and said, “Tell me what’s
more important? That one of you is right or that you got the job done in the end? If
you take a look at the big picture each of you has your own abilities and strengths
and none of them is more superior to the others. Together they are powerful,
individually they are weak. Together you have achieved what would have been
impossible alone.”
Moral of the story:
Think about what is more important to you when you work in a group. Is
it that you are “the one” that is always right or in charge or is it that you bring
the group together and achieve your goals?