Stone Soup

The old fable of “stone soup” is an interesting allegory for project leadership of all types.

Creating a frame for collaboration, the main heroes make something out of nothing, beat the prisoner’s dilemma, and through the power of telling a curious and surprising story, forge an outcome that would not have occurred if they had started with a purely factual explanation of what they were doing.

But I’m getting ahead of myself…

“According to the story, some travellers come to a village carrying nothing more than an empty pot.

Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travellers. The travellers fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire in the village square. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travellers answer that they are making "stone soup”, which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavour, which they are missing.

The villager doesn't mind parting with just a little bit to help them out, so it gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travellers again mention their stone soup which hasn't reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out.

More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient. Finally, a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all. The stone may or may not be reused in the next soup, and fortunately is not eaten.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Beating the prisoners dilemma takes a story that people can connect to, something that taps into an emotional base, whether that be sex, greed, altruism, or indeed even just curiosity: Yet how many project initiation documents have you ever read that were anything but factual statements of specification.

If you are going to inspire people to create something great, whether it’s a new billing system , or the next global social revolution, you need a little stone soup in the mix, specifications just aren’t enough.

— Jason Bates

Tags: stone+soup, leadership, prisoner's+dilemma