The Trees & the Axe

The Trees & The Axe

In a forest deep, where trees stood tall,

There lived a community, strong and all.

Their branches reached for the sky so high,

Underneath the sun, where eagles fly.

But one day, a threat loomed near,

An axe appeared, bringing fear.

The trees whispered in worried groans,

Fearing for their lives, and for their own.

"We must act fast," the elder tree said,

"Or we'll all fall to the axe's dread.

Let us offer a branch, sacrifice one,

To fashion a handle, until its work is done."

Agreeing with haste, they chose a limb,

To save themselves, it seemed no sin.

But the axe, once made, turned around,

Cutting through trees, with a deafening sound.

The sacrifice made was in vain,

For soon, they all felt the pain.

Their unity shattered, trust betrayed,

By the very tool their branch had made.

So, heed the lesson this fable imparts,

Beware of betraying your own hearts.

For when unity breaks, all fall to the cracks,

In the tragic tale of "The Trees and the Axe."

Moral of the Story: Don't betray your teammates in the face of adversity. Stand strong.

---

Modern Musings

Rather than retell this fable, I found today was a good day to simply reflect on its moral. In the principles of agile, it's all about the team. It can be really easy to look at one person on th team and think to oneself "they're the reason things went wrongly, slowly, etc." However, it's only the team that matters. When managers who don't fully understand that yet, they (the axe) come into the team (the forest of trees) asking who needs to be the one to blame for the short term failures, it's important to stand united as a team in this moment more than any other. The team is the reason for the failures, not any individual. Start asking yourself as a team "what can WE do to prevent this from happening again?" The answers are often complex and experimental. Teams must learn to take full responsibility as a single entity. Sure, someone on the team probably messed something up, or forgot to do something, or went too slow, or overestimated, or underestimated, or WHATEVER. Retrospect with your teams about what went wrong, but if the answer is to just give up the one person who is making it tough, just remember, there will be a new bottom bar if that person goes. I would suggest finding ways to start covering for one another and checking and uplifting one another. Teams that practice together, no matter the sport/situation, will always do better than those whose individual members all practice separately.