One day, a little mouse living on a farm, spied the farmer and his wife opening a package. He was aghast to discover that the package contained, not food, but a mouse trap. The mouse ran to the farmyard warning everyone. "There is a mouse trap in the house; there is a mouse trap in the house!" The chicken raises his head and exclaimed. "Mr. Mouse, I can tell you this trap is a grave concern to you, but it has no consequence to me and I cannot be bothered with it."
The mouse turned to the pig. "I am so very sorry Mr. Mouse, but the trap is no concern of mine either."
The mouse then turned to the bull. "Sounds like you have a problem Mr. Mouse, but not one that concerns me."
The mouse returned to the house dejected that no one would help him or was concerned about his dilemma. He knew he had to face the trap on his own. That night the sound of a trap catching its prey was heard throughout the house.
The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness she could see that it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer's wife. The wife caught a bad fever and the farmer knew the best way to treat a fever was with chicken soup. He took his hatchet to the farmyard to get the soup's main ingredient.
The wife got sicker, and friends visited her round the clock. The farmer had to feed them, so he butchered the pig. The farmer's wife got worse and died. So many friends and family came to her funeral that the farmer had to slaughter the bull to feed them all.
So the next time we hear that one of our team-mates is facing a problem and think it does not concern or affect us, let us remember this:
When anyone of our team members is in trouble, we are all at risk.
Something to share:
Mind your own business? That’s too bad and it’s definitely a wrong attitude. You just can’t mind your own business when your friend or your team member is in trouble.
You will get “slaughtered” too in the end if you refused to mind the business right from the beginning. If you are not concerned and refuse to help, thinking that it’s none of your business to intervene and you can get away with it, then you are wrong! Always remember that the fire in your neighbour’s house may spread to your house in the same row. That’s the moral of the story.
Well, in the context of teamwork, it’s no more a matter of whether it’s your business (your problem) or my business (my problem) but rather it’s our business (our problem). Whenever a team member gets into trouble (having problem), we have to show our concern and start minding each other’s business (solving the problem collectively). Every team member will have to accept each other and offer help when needed. No matter what the differences, all team members must stay beside each other and support each other. We will either swim or die with our team members in the river of trouble, but there is always a WAY OUT when we stick together.
That’s the true spirit of teamwork!
