Luke Himself

The Snake

November 15th, 2009 | Published under General | No Comments

There is a Sufi tale about a person who noticed a disturbing bump under a rug. He tried to smooth out the rug, but every time he did so, the bump returned. In utter frustration, he finally lifted up the rug, and to his great surprise, out slid an angry snake.

In an organisational context, this story can be viewed as a metaphor for the occasions when, in making interventions, we deal only with symptoms. Inevitably, despite our attempts to smooth this over, the snake beneath – the underlying cause – keeps working its mischief. Unless we pull out the snake and deal with it, it will confound our best efforts to improve organisational efficiency.

Is it time you stopped trying to flatten the rug and took a look under instead?