A nice post from Johnnie Moore's weblog:
Once upon a time, a millipede met a management consultant. (These insects do sometimes run into each other.)
The consultant admires the amazing walk of the millipede and says, "That's a remarkable skill you have there, the way you coordinate all those legs so beautifully. What a marvellous metaphor for organisations! Will you let me model it? Then I can sell the idea to my clients and transform the world of work!"
So the consultant spends hours with the insect, making it examine the minute details of its actions. After which, the consultant has a massive best-selling book and training course with which to amaze and mystify his clients: "The Seven Management Secrets of the Millipede - Maximising Profits for 21st Century Organisations." Meanwhile, the creature is so stressed at the sudden realisation of how complicated its legs are... that it can't walk properly anymore.
