ABSTRACT
There's an old story about performance management, in which an archer is trying to get his young son ready for his first match. The archer carefully positions the target fifty feet out, blindfolds his son, and says ‘see if you can hit the target’. His son dutifully fits an arrow into the bow and fires away, missing the target by twenty feet to the left. The archer laughs, good-naturedly. ‘You’ll have to do better than that. Give it another try.’ The son, still blindfolded, manages to send off another arrow, this time missing the target by thirty feet to the right. The archer, now a little perturbed, says sharply, ‘This kind of sorry shooting will ruin our family name. Now hit the damn target already!’ Unable to see what he's doing, the son tries again and sends the projectile twenty feet over the target and into the woods beyond. Angry, the archer grabs his walking stick and hits his son in the side, knocking him to the ground. ‘A man must be able to hit a target with an arrow to survive in this world. Now get up and do it right!’ The son climbs to his feet painfully, fits his very last arrow, and facing in the wrong direction, fires it into the archer's prize mare, killing the horse. Exasperated, the archer cries, ‘This is a disgrace. Get in the house and try making some dresses or something. Go on!’ The son, unable to see where he is going with the blindfold on, wanders off into the woods, never to be seen again.
