Four blind men & an elephant - What can leaders learn

How does an elephant look like?

Once upon a time, there lived four blind people in a village. They were good friends and always lived together.  

One day, while walking through the village, they came across lot of noise from a certain direction.  That noise made them very curious and they walked towards that direction. After walking for a bit, they met a big gathering of the crowd that was cheering for something.   Upon enquiring the people, they found out that someone has brought an elephant to the village to show to the people.

The blind men got excited as they had never come across an elephant. They requested the owner to let them touch and feel the elephant, as they could not see. The owner was kind enough to let them come closer and let them see and touch the elephant.

So, these four men, unknown to the size, positioned themselves to feel the elephant. One man touched the elephant’s trunk, one stood near the leg, other one near the stomach and other one touched the tail. They all began to touch and sense what kind of animal is the elephant.

After taking their time to sense the shape and size of the elephant from their positions, they thanked the owner and left the place and began to talk to each other and describe the elephant.

The first man – Elephant is such a great animal, it seems exactly like a thick and flexible rod.  

The second man – Oh really, I do not think so. Its more like a giant pillar and it does not move.

The third man – Come on! I don’t know what you touched, but the elephant is like a giant wall.

The fourth man – No no, you all are wrong. The elephant is like a rope, very thin and very hairy. 

All four men kept arguing and fighting with each other till they reached home.  They ended up being upset with each other and did not talk to each other for a long time.

You may have heard this story before, haven’t you?

 What does the above story tell us?

All the four men were right from their own perspectives and angles. They had described the elephant as they had felt and touched. They were all saying the truth.  However, none of them knew the complete truth i.e., how the elephant truly may have looked.

 Now let’s compare this to the office environment and to people who we work with.  

Remember the instances when your fellow colleagues, peers or team members have argued defending their corners, their views and stories. 

Have you been part of any of these situations where there have been heavy arguments between the leaders and ultimately it turns into an ego-clash?

Have you heard any statements like, ‘He / she never understands’, ‘He / she is absolutely not adaptable’, ‘He / she is just so stubborn’ and likewise?' or simply 'He / she never listens to me.'

Do the above statements resonate with you?  I am sure they do.

Continuing the story ..  

Let’s continue to build on our blind men and elephant story forward.  

So, the four blind men continue their argument about the elephant. A wise man was watching them from a distance, he thought he had enough and went up to them and asked what happened.   One of the blind men explained the entire situation to the wise man.

The wise man took them back to the elephant, he made them sit near it. The wise man then took some clay and built a small model of elephant that resembled the real elephant. 

He sat with the four blind men and explained the elephant and how it looked. He then handed over the clay model to each of the four blind men and explained how the real elephant looks, especially starting from the point of view they had.  

He made the first man touch the trunk of the model and then rest of the part, to the second the leg. He started with the stomach for the 3rd and with the tail for the fourth man. Each blind man was able to explore the entire elephant using the model to get some idea of how the elephant may look.

He then took each of the four blind men back to the real elephant and asked them to imagine the elephant again.   This time, even though they started from a different position than they started again, they were able to really imagine the elephant better.

In the end, all of them had the same idea and was able to find their own path to imagine the elephant, exactly in the same way.

 What does it tell about real leaders?

We all see arguments, perceived politics, people being defensive about their own stories and then ending up in fights/disagreements and sometimes ego-clashes.

The real leaders act like the wise man in the story.

They focus on making the bigger problem easy enough for everyone to understand, make everyone to see the big picture, and allow a space for people’s own perspectives and more importantly allow dissent in the opinions.

The perspectives/opinions of people are based on their experience, their life story and which part of elephant that they have seen. So, leaders need to realize that people could be right from their point of view and help them build the path from their context, to the common bigger context.  

Successful leaders work relentlessly on building a shared vision, explain “WHY” for everything, align people towards a common mission and make people feel part of their journey to the success.

Are you one of these?