Aesop’s Fables, Covid-19 and Your Team

Aesop’s Fables, Covid-19 and Your Team

As our offices strive to work effectively in the new paradigm of an ongoing pandemic a unified team effort is vitally important. Our verbal messages need to be consistent and our actions must support what we say and support one another. We are working in a world of inconsistencies and mixed messages from our scientific community, government and regulatory agencies. This can lead team members to drift away from their commitment to the team and working in alignment with our core mission, vision and values.

Here is an exercise adapted from Aesop’s Fable 53[1] that you might consider for a morning huddle. It will cost you two or three wooden pencils. When it is over there may be a snicker or some eye rolling. However, you can count on everyone going home and using the story with their family. 

Bring the group together and hand one team member a new pencil. Ask the team member to break the pencil in half – which they can easily do. Ask another team member do the same thing.  Then give the third person five pencils held together with a couple rubber bands and ask them to break the bundle – which of course they cannot do. Then ask if anyone is wondering why you have them doing this. Your answer(s) will tell you something about your team. 

Depending on the answers you can either tell the story of Aesop’s fable about unity or use your own story to point out that one team member facing a challenge can be easily broken, or one team member communicating in a manner that is not in alignment with the office values can disrupt the lives of others on the team. Then emphasize that a unified team with a unified message cannot be broken by difficult circumstances or difficult people.

Don’t expect any earthshaking response from this exercise. Aesop’s fables are often so seemingly simple that we miss the deeper meaning. Don’t be surprised, however, if you hear stories from the team about how they used the same exercise to deal with their family or friends.

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[1] Univ. of Oklahoma Mythology Course, Aesop’s Fable 53, Laura Gibbs