Last weekend, in my capacity as the HR & OD consultant of a growing family owned company that is well on its way to transitioning into a medium sized industry player. I had the unenviable task of “effectively” conduct a learning session relative to the upcoming changes and system improvement we have been implementing and processes that will be rolled out.
Our role is to prepare the company, its processes and employees cope with upcoming changes in expectations, roles and mindset that are needed to be able to cope with its phenomenal growth & span.
Prior to these, for trainings, I just tapped a very good, seasoned, capable speaker& motivational speaker Mr. Jeremiah Abay. In his previous session, I was already content on helping him develop & tailor fit the content of his presentations based on the training needs analysis & requests from department heads. I had become so fixated on his talk that I consciously assigned myself to do ice breakers & design his workshops then evaluate the impact of these sessions to the employees & team dynamics, hoping to pick up more learnings for my own consumption.
Here is the catch, had to conduct the learning session in two (2) hours which to me is not vene enough to cover a topic where it is an expectation to leave a mark, give out relevant take aways and boost confidence in employees.
As I pondered as I was developing my ppt presentation, it dawned on me that I had previously attended a training where the trainor used “story telling” to keep an otherwise uninterested group attentive.
Next would be choosing the appropriate story aligned to the messaging I wanted to put across. I could’ve just tapped into my bowlful of anecdotes from my more than three decades of handling MNCs that would somehow strike a chord on the attendees (Admin, HR & Accounting teams) without boring them to sleep. And so I decided to use a story that many years back, in one of the trainings I conducted in a Japanese company, when I was tapped as one of their outsourced trainors for Leadership Training, for the workshop, I used the “The Naked Emperor Story”, a timeless parable about vanity, deception, and the courage to speak the truth.
Retelling it in summary, the story goes about a long time ago, in a great kingdom, where there lived an emperor who was vane. He adored fine clothing & wanted to look good, more than ruling wisely. Though his wardrobe was endless, he always craved something for new to impress his people. He would love to show off the most lavish wardrobe specially during the annual Emperor’s Parade. The fairest, richest and most powerful royals from the kingdom & beyond would be in attendance & join traditional walk around the main courtyard while watching in awe are the kingdom’s subject, visitors and guests.
One day, two cunning trusted advisers of the emperor were in serious discussion as they were worried on how to procure the best, most expensive and very elegant clothes for the emperor to wear because they had spent money intended for the purchase in a night of partying, merrymaking and celebration in the most expensive tavern in the kingdom.
Realizing the big trouble that they are in, and not wanting to risk punishment and being banished, they confidently came up with an incredulous claim that they were able to buy the most elegant, expensive and rare cloth in the whole world that no kingdom has had its hands on this. They claim that the most magnificent fabric ever seen (pun intended) is so fine that it was invisible to anyone foolish, unworthy, much more to the ignorant.
The emperor, eager to prove he is the wisest in the kingdom, immediately asked them to create the emperor’s costume out of this invisible cloth.
During fitting & preview sessions, both with the tailors & some select guests pretended to see, touch & appreciate the invisible cloth as it terrified of being thought stupid. And so they praised the “elegant cloth” which reality was not even there. The emperor himself, afraid to be doubted as well though seeing nothing, declared it breathtakingly marvelous.
When parade day came, the emperor paraded through the streets in his “best ever royal robes.” The crowd and people from all over the kingdom, afraid of ridicule and punishment cheered and clapped until a child, playing with his toys, when he saw the emperor pass by, innocent and unafraid, shouted, the emperor is NAKED!
The that spread like wildfire. Everybody, most specially the emperor realized that everybody just pretended, to see something even if it was not even there out of the desire to be accepted & revered.
In parallel to the situation in actual workplace scenario, the Emperor represents management that is oftentimes driven by sugarcoated praise, misplaced compliments, optics or unwarranted validation rather than honest feedback.
The invisible cloth symbolizes olden ways, promised reforms, programs or status quo that have had worked in the past but not worked with the current situation. The trusted advisers and prestigious subjects of the kingdom reflect employees hesitant to challenge the status quo, silenced by fear of being labeled resistant or incompetent risking losing their livelihood.
The unfiltered shout of the child embodies well meaning people (employees or outsiders) with fresh eyes, new ideas tested interventions who are looking from the outside in, like frontline high potential employees, auditors, consultants or risk assessors, who easily see the flaws, but often would find it challenging to change the old ways. which may have worked up to the present but not bold enough to propel the organization to even greater heights because over reliance to the status quo or not being open to change blinds judgment. Any obsession with what others might say can lead hesitance to make hard but correct decisions.
On the other hand, fear silences truth. People often stay quiet to avoid ridicule or would act being competent. It also just shows that sometimes it takes a child’s honesty to reveal what everyone already knew.
Additionally, based on our post story discussion, since we had less number of slides, we had more time to analyze the story & its impact to everybody. We were able to relate this story on how good communication plays an important role in operations and proper management of daily affairs. Participants agree that being honest is the best communication attribute. One must never assume that the majority’s point of view is always right and that even the smallest detail counts. Wise men are those who accept that they don’t know everything. Lastly, the best opinion may come from the least expected source.
A powerful metaphor the Naked Emperor story reminds us that effective management requires courage, structured risk assessment, and most importantly, a culture of truth-telling. Without these, organizations will march forward “naked”—exposed to risks, failure, inefficiency, and loss of credibility.
The End.
GOOD MORNING HARDWORKING PEOPLE!
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