Creating Leadership

CHAPTER 5

Third Phase: The Leadership Community Falls Apart Then Steps Up

The Fable (continued)

For months the hippos remained angry; some were confused. Then the mood turned to defeat as they felt the passing of a happy era. Starved of information, their people both in the East and the West felt more and more anxious.

Then happily one day the young chief discovered “a thing of beauty”—a new seed needing less rain, and despite his frustration, he gathered the chiefs a third time.

Remembering an old saying from his tribe, “One head does not contain all the wisdom,” he decided there and then to change his approach. Instead of waving his stick, he simply pointed to the declining food stores and calmly stated, “There is no going back: Unless we ...