By Jacqueline Wong
I once heard a parable being told by senior leader in the civil service in a leadership forum. You might have heard of it, it’s called “Chicken in Sinai”. The story has it that a Prime Minister once visited the Sinai desert project – it was an exciting experiment on how the Sinai desert could be turned into a place to rear poultry and grow vegetables. The PM commended the host of the project after visiting the place, saying “This is great, when you succeed, you can bring the people here”, as in they can then populate the place and have enough food produce to sustain people. The host, however, gave answer that surprised the visitor, he said “No Sir, with all due respect, you are wrong. When we bring the people here, we will succeed.”
The Sinai project leader knew something subtle but important: if they had begun by asking the question “How do we succeed” in the first place, they might never get there. Instead, they needed to ask “Who will share this vision, care enough about it, and would choose to do it?”, success will come as a natural by-product.
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