You Can't Send A Duck To Eagle School

Ducks and Eagles: An Allegory

Are you someone who blame a problem or take a positive to solve it!

In this book, Anderson told us an intersting story...once upon a time a big company had two types of employees: ducks and eagles. The majority were ducks, who could quote company policy, rules and restrictions as easily as they could flap their wings and muddy the waters. “Quack-quack-quack” could be heard all day long, “Quack-quack-quack.” The ducks’ adherence to rules fitted comfortably with their inability or unwillingness to do anything more than the minimum required. Work began at 8 a.m., the ducks landed at 7:59 a.m. Work finished at 5 p.m., the ducks would be flying home by 5:01 p.m.

Sometimes, hidden among the ducks and their quacking, there would be an eagle. Eagles were a rarity – a minority. They didn’t say much. Eagles sometimes would come to work early or stay later to finish projects or to help solve problems. Eagles worked harder, since it made them feel good – not to win praise or attention from others. Eagles were able to look past the rules and restrictions and find solutions to problems insurmountable to the ducks, who could just “Quack-quack-quack” all day long. Eagles always had doing right by the customer as their main objective. Ducks focused on the bottom line, unable to see customer service as anything more than an annoying part of their day. “Quack-quack-quack.”

Eagles could take a problem and instead of flapping and quacking and getting nowhere, they could soar above the problem, make the customer happy, which ultimately improved the company’s bottom line – a theory ducks could never understand. “Quack-quack-quack.”

Customer service seems to be a lost art form. If you’ve ever tried to point out a problem to a big corporation, you’ve more than likely come across a lot of ducks.

Recently my best friend had a problem with her bank. After weeks of confusion and aggravation my friend didn’t need in her life, I was upset. So, even though we couldn’t prove without a shadow of a doubt that the bank was culpable of anything more than being a challenge to work with, I wrote to the president of the bank, explaining what happened and hoping to find an eagle.

An eagle who could see past the minutia of the complaint to see one of their long time clients, in a dire life or death situation; an eagle who could see how helping one of their own, could show the world that they cared more about their customers than the bottom line. An eagle would understand the good publicity for the company would cost them little to nothing, creating a win-win situation.

Sadly, there were no eagles to be found - all we found were ducks. But at least the ducks took the time to investigate the details “Quack-quack-quack” and write a long letter explaining why they did nothing wrong “Quack-quack-quack”. To their credit, they apologized for the confusion and even threw in a fifty dollar gift card at a grocery store as a gesture of good will. But compared to the billions of dollars they generate, the 50 bucks was a bit underwhelming. The ducks, however, thought it was remarkable and generous, I’m sure; “Quack-quack-quack … Quack-quack-quack” I got back in a letter of apology for the mix up from the head honcho. “Quack-quack-quack.”

And so my friend is still looking for an eagle to help her fly away from her life’s overwhelming challenges, instead of more ducks to “Quack-quack-quack” and flap their wings, threatening to drown her.