Updated for Today’s World

Original Author Unknown

Once upon a time there was an group of Engineers that f ormed a Red rowing team.

This Red Engineer team agreed to hold an annual rowing race with a Green Engineer team. Each team would contain 8 people.

Both teams worked really hard to get in the best shape.

On the day of the fi rst race, both teams were ready to win.

FINISHFINISH

The Green engineer team won by 1 mile!

The Red engineer team’s Management was crushed in their def eat, but they were determined to win the race next year. So they established a panel of auditors to observe the situation and ascertain if there were

any diff erences between the teams.

After several weeks of detailed intelligence gathering the auditors could find only one

difference;

The Green Team had 7 engineers rowing and 1 manager acting as captain….

… and the Red team had 7 managers acting as captains

and 1 engineer doing the rowing!

Un-perplexed by the raw data, upper management showed unexpected wisdom:

they hired a consulting company to analyze the data and suggest a solution that would enable the Red team to win next year.

Months of Surveys, Process review,RACI development, QA analysis,

and Performance Analysis followed…

Finally, the consultants came to the conclusion that the ratio of managers to engineers

was the problem in the Red Team.

Based on this analysis a solution was proposed:

The Structure of the Red Team just had to be changed!

Like sharks getting the scent of reorganization blood, Upper Management wasted no time in

restructuring the Red Team into…

1 Service Support Manager,2 Project Managers and 1 Delivery Manager

to act as Captains, who were to be led by a Senior Delivery Executive (SDE)

who would report to a VP with a dotted line to a single engineer as the rower!

Besides that,In a blaze of unrestricted inspiration,

they suggested they might be inclined to improve the rower’s working environment by initiating a

non-monetary Reward and Recognition scheme

but only if there was improved performance by the rower!

FINISH

The next year, the Green Team won by – 2miles…

The Upper Management of the Red Engineer Team immediately fired the engineer that was the rower based on

his unsatisfactory performance.

A bonus was paid to the Service Support Manager, the 2 Project Managers and the Delivery Manager

who were the Captains and to the Service Delivery Executive (SDE) that guided the Captains, and the VP for the

strong leadership and motivation they all showed during the

Plan, Prepare, Design, Implement Operate, Optimize (PPDIOO) “Preparation” Phase…

and as an incentive for them to find a better Engineer to do the rowing for the Race the next year.

A Consulting Company prepared a new analysis of the restructuring activity, which showed that

• The Strategy was good• The Motivation was great• The restructuring was executed correctly

But the Tools… ahhh the tools… the tools used were deemed Sub-

standard and they were not included in the original data analysis

So they have to be re-engineered & improved!

Currently, the Red Team Management obtainedInternal Funding thru some transfer of training funds

and are having a new boat designed!

But to demostrate fiscal and HR responsibility for stockholders they contracted an Outsource Placement Agency

to advertise in other countries for a new temporary, non-direct engineer

who will be the New Rower.