Business

It’s Never About the Money, it is Always About the Time

A business parable about bunnies and carrots

One day Roger the bunny was out in the meadow happily hopping about his business. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a genie appeared.

Roger was terribly frightened and did what bunnies often do; he froze in place, hoping the genie wouldn’t see him. But the genie did see him and said to Roger, “I am the genie of workplace efficiency and I am here to grant you three wishes.”

Roger had no clue what workplace efficiency was, but he did know what wishes were. In fact, this was a happy coincidence because just before the genie appeared, Roger was wishing that he had a carrot. So, he told the genie just that, “I wish I had a carrot.”

And, as it is with genies, Roger’s wish was fulfilled. He now had a carrot and the genie, after saying, “I will be back to see you tomorrow”, vanished into thin air.

Roger ate his carrot and was one happy bunny.

Now a bunny’s optimal food intake for a day is the equivalent of about 2–3 carrots depending on season and activities and such. So, it wasn’t too long before Roger was hungry again and he couldn’t wait for the genie to appear the next day because he had a great idea.

Sure enough, the next day as Roger was happily hippy hopping around, the genie appeared once again and said to Roger, “You have two wishes left, what do you wish for today?”

Roger had given this a lot of thought. Clearly one carrot wasn’t enough to satisfy his needs for very long. So, Roger had decided that he would ask for 1,000 carrots. Roger settled on this amount because that is the highest number he knew, and also bunnies are notoriously bad with math. But it sounded like a lot; perhaps enough to last Roger for a lifetime.

And, as it is with genies, Roger’s wish was fulfilled. Now there was a massive pile of carrots sitting in the meadow. Roger was ecstatic and began making plans for what he would do with his lifetime supply of carrots as he happily munched on the first one.

It didn’t take long for other bunnies and forest creatures to find out about the big pile of carrots. News travels fast through something called a grapevine. Roger never really fully understood what that term meant, but, nevertheless, bunnies and deer and raccoons and all manners of furry folk started appearing.

Roger became frantic. He paced around his carrot pile and warded off anyone who might steal a carrot. He warned, he begged, he soapboxed about carrot thefts, he paid some of his bunny friends a few carrots to guard the pile, and anything else he could possibly think of to preserve his precious pile of carrots. All to no avail.

Roger became exhausted. All he did was think about his dwindling pile of carrots and how unfair the world was.

Finally, after several weeks of manic and frenzied existence, Roger gave up. He grabbed one carrot, leaving the rest behind for the scheming and in-fighting horde, and went home a slept for three days straight.

After a good rest, Roger was able to get his wits about him and analyze just what went wrong with his last wish. He didn’t really think it was inherently bad to to wish for a wealth of carrots, but in doing so he lost several friends, gained a few enemies and most importantly didn’t have time to do the things he liked to do most, like hopping happily around the meadow.

Initially Roger thought that he just wouldn’t use the last wish, because it would likely bring only more trouble. But over the course of a few days Roger began to form an idea about what he might wish for.

And, as things work with genies, just at the moment that Roger finalized his plan for the last wish, the genie appeared, once again, out of nowhere. This time Roger knew just what to do. He made his wish. And, as it is with genies, Roger’s last wish was fulfilled. A carrot suddenly appeared in front of him.

Roger munched his carrot as he hopped back to the bunny warren where all his friends, family and co-bunnies lived. Once inside, Roger noticed with satisfaction that each bunny he saw had their own carrot. Just like he wished for.

The next day, each bunny once again got a carrot. Just like he wished for. And so it went day after day, each bunny in the warren getting a carrot.

This wasn’t enough to take care of all the needs of the warren. All the bunnies were out foraging every day just like always. But now, all the bunnies could spend just a little less time foraging and more time doing things they were passionate about.

For Roger it was hopping around the meadow, but each of the other bunnies all had their favorite pastimes as well, and all of them enjoyed spending time with their friends and families.

The Moral of the Story

It is never about the carrots; it is always about the time.

Some bunnies have a lot more carrots than others, but that doesn’t necessarily bring them happiness. Meanwhile, everyone can benefit in their own unique way from the gift of time.

If you are in a managerial or leadership role in your organization you don’t need the genie of workplace efficiency to magically appear and grant you wishes in order to make your team, group, section, department, division or company more productive.

All you need to do is gift those that work for you with time. The way you do it is up to you. It can range from doing little things like capping meeting lengths and using agendas to broad sweeping initiatives like flexible hours and tele-commuting.

You decide how to do it and sort out the details. The important thing is to give your employees some of their time back in some way.

As Roger discovered, his community flourished when they collectively had more time for individual pursuits. The same thing can happen in your workplace community.

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.