An ant works hard every day without supervision and is happy. A lion chief is surprised to see the ant's productivity and thinks she could produce more with supervision. He recruits a cockroach supervisor who implements extensive paperwork, meetings, and new hires that decrease the ant's productivity and happiness. An audit finds the department is now overstaffed and underproducing compared to before, and the ant is fired for a negative attitude.

2. Every day, a small awesome ant arrives at work
very early and starts work immediately.
She produces a lot and she is happy.
2

3. A
A - Attitude of Initiative
Ants do not need a leader to tell them to get
started
N - Nature of Integrity
Ants work faithfully and need no outside
Small creature!
Great attributes!
Rare talent!
accountability to keep them doing right
T - Thirst for Industry
Ants work hard and will replace their anthill
when it gets ruined
S - Source of Insight
Ants store provision in summer
3

4. The Chief, a lion,
was surprised to see that
the ant was working
without supervision.
4

5. He thought if the ant can
produce so much without
supervision, wouldn‟t she
produce even more if she
had a supervisor!
5

6. So he recruited a
cockroach
who had extensive
experience as supervisor
and who was famous for
writing excellent reports.
6

7. The cockroach‟s first
decision was to set up a
clocking in attendance
system.
7

8. He also needed a secretary
to help him write and type
his reports and …
8

9. ... he recruited a spider, who
managed the archives and
monitored all phone calls.
9

10. The lion was delighted
with the cockroach's
reports
and asked him to produce
graphs to describe
production rates and to
analyse trends, so that he
could use them for
presentations at
Board„s meetings.
10

11. So the cockroach had to buy a new computer and a
laser printer and ...
11

12. ... recruited a fly
to manage the IT
department.
12

13. The ant, who had once been so productive and relaxed,
hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings
which used up most of her time…!
13

14. The lion came to the
conclusion that it was high
time to nominate a person in
charge of the department
where the ant worked.
14

15. The position was given to the
locust, whose first decision was to
buy a carpet and an ergonomic
chair for his office.
15

16. The new person in charge, the
locust also needed a computer and a
personal assistant ,who he brought
from his previous department, to
help him prepare a Work and
Budget Control Strategic
Optimisation Plan …
16

17. The Department where the ant
works is now a sad place, where
nobody laughs anymore and
everybody has become upset...
17

18. It was at that time that
the locust convinced the
boss , the lion, of the
absolute necessity to
start a climatic study of
the environment .
18

19. Having reviewed the
charges for running
the ant‟s department ,
the lion found out
that the production
was much less than
before.
19

20. So he recruited the
owl , a prestigious and
renowned consultant
to carry out an audit
and suggest
solutions.
20

21. The owl spent three
months in the
department and came
up with an enormous
report , in several
volumes,
that concluded :
“ The department is
overstaffed ...”
21

22. Guess who the lion fires first?
22

23. The ant , of course, because she
“showed lack of motivation and had a negative
attitude".
23

24. NB:
Os personagens desta fábula são fictícios; qualquer semelhança com
pessoas ou factos reais é pura coincidência.
The characters in this fable are
fictitious; any resemblance toreal
people or facts within the
Corporation is pure coincidence…
24

25. The Moral of the Story???
• First Line Managers are the supporters
of wealth creation in the organisation
because they have direct access to
customers, to employees and to
suppliers but without the proper
learning and development they cause
serious bottlenecks and conflict and
thus a serious limiting force.
25

26. Simply Smart
Talent Management
FIRST LINE TALENT
Recruit-Retrain-Retain
Don’t delay… Call us today….. To learn about our
First Line, First Time Managers Products & Services.
Contact: Frances Kazan on frances@hitw.co.za or 0833950292
26

27. 27