Do it When your want to talk about desirable characteristics in your company. Aesop’s Fables or the Aesopica is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. Every fable has a story in which characters of the people are personified in animals. In addition, every fable has its morale and because of that fables are told to the children while they were building their value systems. I think that nowadays fables should be used in companies to build value system of the organizations. Divide your participants in small groups and in each group tell them to find 3 characteristics that are totally unacceptable in your organization. After that, tell them to reverse those characteristics and find 3 positive. Now, for each characteristic they have to find one animal that will represent it. After that each group just has to make its unique fable. To make it more interesting each group will make a drawing about its fable. In the end, read them all and show the morale of each fable. While preparing the workshop for my group, 3 fables came to my mind. Here is the first one.
A Midnight rooster
Every morning a rooster was first to wake up in the farm announcing to all other animals that the new day had come. But the young hens had some new habits. They liked to sleep late in the morning. So they made a cunning plan. The young hens came to the rooster with a story that he had an extraordinary voice and that he should try to sing during the night for them. The rooster was flattered and he accepted to make them serenades during the nights. The poor rooster was caught in a trap to sing all night long, so he couldn’t wake up in the morning. The farmer noticed that there was something wrong with the rooster, so he killed and fried him.
Morale of the fable: Do your job properly no matter what “young chicks” will tell you to do.
Now coaching questions for you:
1. Think about your life. Dedicate one animal to all 8 areas of your life. What animals will you choose? The areas are: Physical Environment, Career, Money, Health, Romance, Friends / Family, Personal Growth and Fun / Recreation.
2. Make stories for all 8 animals.
3. What would you suggest to each animal?
Thank you for sharing your ideas!