Shall I tell you a story? Are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then let’s begin…

The chief executive and directors are just about to sit down to a meeting when there is a knock at the door. They wonder who on earth it could be. Is it the auditor? No, she’s on holiday. Is it the Head of HR? No, he’s already been. Is the man with the tea? No, it’s too early. The chief executive opens the door. My word! It’s a tiger, and he’s angling for an invitation to join the meeting. Of course, the chief executive takes it in her stride. In comes the tiger.  This tiger is gorgeous. Even I think so. He’s got a lovely, long, curving tail that wraps itself around the table leg. He’s friendly.

But he’s greedy too. He eats all the agendas. He eats all the minutes. He eats the reports.  He eats all the pens. He unplugs the laptops, gathers up all the phones and eats them too. Things are beginning to get rather worrying.

And that naughty tiger doesn’t stop there. He eats all the thoughts too; right from inside the managers’ heads. He eats up everything they thought they knew about being good managers. When everything that can be eaten has gone, he leaves. Just like that. But he does say “thank you for the lovely meeting”, so I suppose he’s a polite tiger at least. The chief executive and directors are worried. They can’t carry on with the meeting – the agendas have all gone and besides, they have forgotten how to be good managers. So they leave the room, return to their offices and ask their staff if there is anything they can do to help. The staff are delighted and they get the managers working on problems they have been struggling with for many years. Suddenly, everything gets better! Customers who come into reception smile. Staff smile. Managers smile. Directors smile. The chief executive smiles. She decides to never have another management team meeting again.

Then one day she gathers up a big pile of agendas, minutes and reports in case the tiger should ever call again…..but he never did.