Trees and Nails
This is a story we have heard often that has been used to show the importance of treating others with respect…which is an applicable message for your children as well as your people.
‘A few years ago I received an email –it was one of those forwarded emails which I deleted. But I still remember the contents. The email was about a father and son. One day the son came home and said ‘Dad I said something hurtful to someone today, but I apologised so it should be OK’. The father didn’t say anything but asked his son to follow him outside with some nails and a hammer. The father then asked the son to hammer a few nails into a tree, which the son did. The father then asked his son to remove the nails, which the young boy did. The father then said “Your harsh words are like nails in the tree. Your apology is like taking the nails out of the tree – the tree still has holes in it and maybe over time the tree will heal, but it will never be the same. Hurtful words can leave a scar like this one …what I learnt from that is how important it is to speak kindly to your friends and to other people you meet, even in the heat of the moment.’
Milk Crates
This story was from a HR professional who needed to convince her business unit on the growing importance of continually striving to attract and retain good employees (Consultancy company McKinsey & Co, termed this the War for Talent).
“When I was about 14 my Dad took me to the football every week. We would stand in the outer and being smaller than everyone else, I often missed out on seeing the action. One week we decided to bring along an old milk crate we had lying around to stand on. It was great – I was finally ahead of everyone else and could watch the whole game. The next week we brought along the milk crate again but this time we noticed that a few other people had also brought along their milk crates. We were actually a bit impressed that we had started a trend. Unfortunately, within a few months nearly everyone had a milk crate and I was literally back to square one, back with the rest of the pack. My experience at those matches reminds me of what we are trying to achieve with the war for talent. We can’t be happy with starting a trend and taking an early lead, we need to constantly be on the lookout for our next milk crate.”
Comments
This story worked and to add to the impact the narrator actually brought in a milk crate and held it up at the end. This story works for this specific purpose but also has such a wide application. So while her purpose was around the war for talent, this story could easily be about striving for excellence or to capture the concept of continuous improvement.
