Understanding = Message + Delivery

But on the other hand, I personally “saw” it differently. What I hear him saying is, “Don’t treat these trucks differently from the old trucks. And don’t be worried about dents, scratches or scrapes on these brand new work trucks - after all, they’re work trucks.”

What I find fascinating is the variety of meanings different people can take away from the same story. That’s what makes parablesso powerful.

Good thinking! Always more than one side to things, it seems.

Was it ever mentioned how these trucks were to be used? Were they for a special purpose? If someone parked them in a specific place, might there be a specific intent? Would it disrupt this intent if someone moved them out of the way? Are they ready to be used? Is the graphics company on their way to make them pretty?

And then there is the complete lack of ‘taking the initiative’ on the part of the employees… which is also a direct result of the leadership….

Perhaps a little sign on the dash that said “Use Me!” would have gotten the job done more effectively without the hammer and the unnecessary dramatics.

This tells me that Tom has his employees living in fear of him, he sucks at communication, and he likely flies off the handle on a regular basis. I don’t think I’d want to work for Tom…

Thanks for a great, insightful comment. You’re right - it’s about perspective.

Bwa-ha-ha-ha! You just made me blow milk from my nose on that one!

I know that there’s no “right answer”.

To me the parable, a great story, says that we are overly caught up in the way things appear. We need to get past the shine and the glitz to see things with better perspective — this is a truck to get us and stuff from A to B, not just a new and shiny status symbol (that status symbol part is a post all by itself!). Sometimes it takes a disruptive shock to the system (the interaction between our perceptions and the thing being perceived) for us to truly see.

Bob, great post, and thanks for the participatory exercise!

When I first heard this story, (it was passed on to me by Tom’s son), my immediate response was, “well, yeah, the point is… uh, er…” and then I realized there’s actually many levels here.

What’s interesting about parables is that nearly everyone will have a slightly (or even wildly) different take away. It’s not really: “What does this mean?”, but “What does this mean to you, today?”