The Big Fat Hen - Asia

In a certain country in Asia there lived an old woman. It is said that she had a pretty hen that laid her a fine egg each morning. She was the envy of all the other women in the village. While other women also had hens, they were not so regular and a little lazy. And when their hens laid eggs they were small and not so tasty.

Image: Susil Sri Creations

The old lady with the fat hen was really proud of her bird. Yet after some time she became used to having fresh eggs and she came up with an idea. What if I give my hen a little bit more corn every day, perhaps then she'll lay two eggs per day. After all, why should I be satisfied with one egg per day only?

As such the woman started to feed her hen twice per day, and she gave her a little bit more to eat each day. The hen grew bigger and bigger, and eventually became very fat. And lazy she became too. She refused to get up on the mornings, and one day, she did not even lay one egg. The villagers were laughing. The old lady's hen had stopped laying eggs all together. The village women appreciated their own small eggs even more...

Questions

• For which reason did they old lady try to improve her hen's egg laying?
• Why were the other villages laughing at her?
• What does this story tell you about improving procedures and innovations?

Management Link

The Americans have a saying: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. In other words: any attempt to improve on a system that is already functional should be carefully considered or it may be detrimental. This story clearly illustrates how this woman's idea of improving her hen's egg laying backfired. Why did she over-feed the hen? Perhaps out of greed, or to impress her fellow villages, or maybe she came from humble beginnings such that eggs were an extremely valued commodity. Who knows?

As a manager you will need to promote innovation in your organization, and to establish good practices. The lesson learned from this tale is to always make sure you carry out a proper (needs) assessment before changing any good system or current practice.

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