monster

This is a true story recounted by Dave
Monster ! : A cautionary tale In my younger days I was deeply involved in martial arts. For many years I practised and taught karate. Several times each year our club would take part in tournaments, often quite large affairs involving competitors from all over the country. We would often encounter teams from a club in a neighbouring town. Over the years we got to know the people from the other club quite well and would occasionally train together.
One particular individual from this club, who we saw compete on a regular basis, was a black belt called Graham. Graham was well over six feet tall and very muscular. His flaming red hair and scarlet complexion belied a very gentle character, except, that is, during competition when he became a real berserker : hence his nickname "*Monster". Monster was very dedicated, he never missed a training session and did lots of extra weight training, he was the epitome of the head down and charge* school of thought. No one tried harder than Monster.
Yet every time he entered a competition the result would be the same. Monster and his opponent would stand up facing each other and the referee would signal start. Monster would scream and, sustaining the scream, charge forward, running at his opponent, fists flailing. A truly terrifying sight. As-often-as-not Monster’s opponent would side step and Monster would charge past him and step out of the arena. The referee would stop the contest, call him back and signal a restart. I once even saw him charge past his opponent, right out of the arena and into the next one disrupting that fight. Whereupon he stopped, shook his head like a raging bull, turned round and charged back into the fight. On each restart Monster would try even harder, shouting louder, flailing faster and charging in with even more aggression and his opponent would side step again. Eventually his opponent would counterattack. A roundhouse kick, placed with surgical precision, would tap the back of Monster’s head as he charged past. The referee would signal ippon and the contest would be over. No one tried harder than Monster yet he was always beaten by someone who, even in the face of a fierce and daunting opponent, relaxed and allowed himself to perform. Monster only had one solution, for him there was only one right answer to the challenge of winning the competition. He applied his answer with increasing ferocity and energy yet he always lost because he failed to realise that simply trying harder was not the solution and because he lacked flexibility.
Of course there is a moral to this tale. In business there are often times when we need to improve performance, because we want growth, increased profits or simply to survive. And no matter how hard we try the results just don't improve, or, at best, the improvement is small compared to the effort that we put in. That is when we need to do something different, to engage our creative / innovative faculties. We need to work smarter not harder.

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