The stage is set. There is a table, five dishes and five poles. A man comes out on the stage in a tuxedo, places a plate on top of one of the poles and begins to spin it. As it picks up speed he balances the pole with the spinning dish on the table and then goes to the next dish. He places the second dish on the top of another pole, spins it until it picks up speed and balances it on the table. As the second dish spins a curious thing happens. The first dish is losing speed and begins to wobble. He now gives all his attention to the first dish working on the pole so it causes the first dish to pick up speed. But as luck would have it the second dish is now losing speed and the man now has to work the second dish so it will pick up speed. Now a decision is made to spin both poles so both dishes pick up speed. At this point he is ready to take the third dish, place it on the top of the third pole and spin it so the dish picks up speed. As he completes this he notices that dish one and two are losing speed and has to go back to the two dishes to get them back up to speed.

By the time the man gets all five dishes spinning he is running back and forth, breaking into a sweat and trying to keep all the dishes spinning at a high speed. Since this was all done in the form of entertainment, when all of the dishes are spinning he takes a bow, the audience claps and he is a hero. He points to the dishes and as they all lose speed they begin to fall to the stage floor and the audience laughs.

NOW, let's look at the business application. Do you ever get to the end of the day feeling tired, wondering what you accomplished and are saying in one form or another, "I spent the whole day just trying to keep everything going.  I had so much to do today I could hardly keep up." And, more importantly, if you took your attention away from the days work would things begin to crash?

WELL, here is a question to ask, "Are you a two hundred dollar an hour person doing twenty dollar an hour work?" Here is how to find out. If you go to the Medieval Times restaurant there is a period of time when there is a joust. The knights come out on horseback with their lances and begin to fight. If one of the knight's lances are damaged or dropped the vassal is there to hand the knight another lance. When the knight dismounts the horse the vassal is there to hand the knight a sword, mace or other instrument of battle. If you are beginning to get the picture, the knight focuses on what the knight needs to do, only what he needs to do and does it well. The rest of the tasks are delegated to someone else. At the end of the day the knight doesn't feed the horse, sharpen the swords, buy food for the horse, etc. The knight only does what the knight is supposed to do and by doing so can do more of what knights are supposed to do. Take a look at what you are supposed to do each day and delegate what needs to be delegated so you can do what you are supposed to be doing.

On a final note, in the heat of battle when the knight dropped the lance and went back to get another lance, if when dismounted had to go find a lance, THE KNIGHT WOULD BE DEAD.