Creating Leadership

CHAPTER 3

First Phase: Looming Danger and Making the First Call

The Fable (continued)

The sleepy people were blind to the looming danger that a brave young chief saw clearly. The first thing the young chief did was to call all the chiefs from East and West together. He told them, “The rains are changing. We must combine the skills and resources of East and West and face this together. If we do not adapt, we are storing up great problems for ourselves that may threaten our very existence.”

But the chiefs did not believe him. Unafraid and fierce like a lion, the young chief waved his stick at them but like old male hippos—big, thick skinned, and sedentary—the other chiefs were hard to rouse. The young chief didn’t give up. He continued to provoke ...