The account and the engineer - the tale of the two hunters

Several years ago I was at a company that was really struggling. To get everybody hyped, they organized a social event and they invited a "motivational speaker" to rally the troops. During his speech he told this story:

"Two hunters go into the savanna. They arrived at the site where they decided to mount their base and as soon as they unload their baggage, one of them simply goes off into the woods while the other one is left alone to prepare everything. Mounting camp, getting the weapons ready, checking the tools and traps, checking their supplies, etc, etc. He’s about to finish all those tasks when he finally sees his companion again, sprinting towards their camp, trying to be out of reach of a lion that's almost catching him. 

And as he's about to reach their camp he shouts "You take care of this one while I get another!"

My friends; the hunter that was running is the Account. They should focus on bringing the game within range of the weapons and tools of a skillful hunter, the Engineer."

It might looked like a witty anecdote but there are a few mistakes:

- If the other hunter was expecting smaller animal and didn't had the tools or skills to tackle a lion, he would end up dead.

- If the other hunter was in fact expecting a lion and his companion brought him an elephant, he wouldn't have the weapons to handle such beast and would end up trampled. 

- If the other hunter was expecting a lion and instead got a pack of hyenas, he would have the weapon to tackle a few of them but it will end up overwhelmed.

Well, you get the idea.

But we can take that anecdote and ask ourselves how could make things go much better. 

First of all, there should have been a clear understanding between the two hunters; What are we going to hunt? Do we have the skills for that? What resources do we have available? What are the dangers and our limitations?

Once that's settle they should set a proper plan of action. They must be aware that despite all the planning and preparation, there events that they can't control and that might have impact on their plan. They need to judge if those events are manageable or if they are should stop I change their way.

Also very important is they both need to have the willing to follow the plan. If the running hunter sits in the shadow of a nearby tree or if he runs really fast but he's just doing laps close to their base, only by sheer luck would they get a lion passing through their camp. On the other hand, if it's the technical hunter sitting in the shadow and he doesn't prepare his weapons and tools, he won't be fully ready when the time for action finally arrives and miss the limited opportunity. 

Another thing that we can analyze in this anecdote is the skills of the technical hunter. Handing a rifle to a someone and tell him, "right, you got your weapon, you got your gear, you know where the jungle is, basically you're all set. Off you go and if you need anything just ask around". The results might be catastrophic:

But, if he's given time and training to sharpen his skills, he will become a skillful hunter, ready to fulfill the tasks that everyone is expecting him to do. Furthermore, if he's willing to do all the hard work and has the dedication and passion to continuously improve his skills, he could even reach a state where he will be skillful enough to kill a bull with a karate chop.