The naked king

My mother told me this story when I was a kid. I never knew at that time this simple funny story was not just the story of the naked king but had some truly greater significance. This write-up is simply an expression of acceptance of that significance. Before I start the story I request all of my fellow readers to skip it at once if they know it and read what follows the story.

There was very rich king of some country. He was very fond of trying new clothes. He had satiated himself with all kind of different style of clothing oriental to occidental, north to south. He was really in search of some kind of clothes which were truly exceptional. He told his desire to everyone and soon 2 clever guys appeared in his court. They said that they would design special clothes for him. So special that only knowledgeable could see them. King was suddenly in a soup. If he rejects the idea, suspicion may arise on his mental prowess. So he happily agreed and asked the treasurer to help the guys with the money.

After taking 6 months of time and consuming half of the treasury, the 2 guys arrived in the court with their arms stretched in front as if they were holding something. They told King that the clothes had been done and they were in their hands. The king bound by the “knowledgeable” clause acted as if he was very happy to see the amazing clothes. The 2 guys were clever with a sinister sense of humor. So they asked the king to dress up in those special clothes and take a round of his country. By that time everyone around knew about the special clothes. As soon as the king, fully stripped of his clothes, stepped out of his palace all his subjects and people started shouting praises and accolades for his new clothes. He turned a corner where a boy of 3-4 years of age was standing with his mother and he was really oblivious to all this hype and hoopla of the clothes as he himself was in bare minimum of clothes. As soon as he saw the king he shouted “the king is naked, the king is naked”. There was the briefest of silence before the whole country burst up with laughter, slogans, sarcastic comments and what not. The king wound up his procession and sent for the 2 guys but obviously they were nowhere to be found.

THE END

I am sure many of you have come across the situations where fallacy is visible and still we have to praise it with full voice. The question comes that what is next? I think it is never wrong to praise the loophole on full voice when your own ass in going to be in trouble. But it would be most ethical to develop a system or say a pocket of excellence in your own small group or office where you take care of that loophole in a methodical way. That is success. And so as you grow up and traverse through the organization you keep creating many such pockets of excellence. And suppose you become the king you ensure that at least your immediate subordinates are like the child in the story, who would always tell you the truth on face.

One of the things that should be encouraged in the subordinates is candidness. It is quite obvious that as we grow up in organization this candidness gets lost. Majority of us eventually become the king’s subject and that childlike thinking is lost somewhere. If you are able to impart your subordinate courage to come up and speak to you about the state of affairs and also give his own set of ideas, then I think you have solved almost half of the problems. Most of the times it happens that he may have a better grasp of the situation and he may have faced it before as well. But your high headedness is not giving him enough strength and talk to you.

Candidness and cockiness should be perfectly differentiated as the former may easily turn into latter which is disastrous in equal measure. You should always ensure that while giving any idea objectivity of the cause is not lost. It should also be made clear to everyone.

I just felt that I should share the story as well as the analogy.