The Three Little Egoistic Pigs
Welcome my dear friends to a little session
of storytelling. Today I will be telling you the story of the three little pigs
but it will definitely be a little different from the one we have heard when we
were young.
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| Pigs strolling along the river |
One fine day, Pigs A, B and C were
strolling along the river near their hideout. They were hiding from the
tiresome big bad wolf because he was always around the corner trying to catch
and eat them up. The three little pigs had enough of running away from him and
made a splendid decision. They decided to build a house for the three of them
to live in. This would give them a good hideout and protect them from the big
bad wolf. Therefore pigs A, B and C sat down together during lunch to discuss
about the house that they wanted to build.
Pig A wanted to build a house made of straw.
He said that building a house of straw would not require much work and could be
completed within a short span of time. Indeed he was a very lazy little pig.
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| House of Straw |
However
pig B was a more hardworking than pig A. He was insistent on building a house
of stick. Though it would require more work and time, they would be protected
against the wolf as he cannot destroy the house of stick very easily.
 |
| House of Sticks |
The most practical, smartest and most
hardworking of all the pigs, pig C decided that building a house of bricks
would be safest. Though the pigs would need to work very hard to build a house
of brick, they would be gifted with safety and security as the wolf can never
bring a house of bricks down. However all the pigs did not want to give in to
their egoistic character and stuck to their own ideas. Their ego prevented them
from weighing all their options and giving weight to the best idea that the
three of them had. Soon an interpersonal conflict ensued.
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| House of Bricks |
Over a short span of time, the conflict
started becoming ugly and aggressive because the pigs did not want to give in
to each other. During this conflict, the pigs started getting angry and impatient with each other. Therefore undesirable words were exchanged and they started raising their voices at each other. They were so engrossed in their little conflict that they forgot
to keep silent lest they give away their hideout to the wolf. Unfortunately for
the hungry wolf, he picked up on the shouting and arguing from a distance and
found the three little pigs at their hideout. He pounced in on them and gobbled
them up within seconds. The poor little pigs did not live to see even a house
of straw built.
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| Pigs being chased by the hungry big bad wolf |
Now my friends, how do you think the pigs
could have avoided this situation and what could have been their solution to
this unfortunate interpersonal conflict?
Hi Loshini!
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that you've used a story that we're familiar with and gave it a twist. The cartoons add life to your story too:)
I think that the pigs could have avoided such a situation by considering about their priorities instead of being preoccupied with their ego. If they had thought about the real problem, which is the hungry wolf, it might have been an easy decision to build a house out of bricks as it is most practical. However, while blindly protecting their ego, they failed to see that survival should be their priority and a common goal. After all, their decision to build a house (out of straw or bricks) is a result of the wolf's threat.
Another way to avoid this conflict is to have a leader among the three pigs. A leader keeps things in check and make the final decision when the need arises. With an appointed leader, the issue with ego would not be so serious as they have someone to respect and look up to.
To resolve the conflict, I believe managing their emotions is key. When they are constantly angry and yelling at one another, it would just aggravate the situation as all of them would only get more agitated and upset. Just taking a break to think and act might be more helpful than to react. Maybe after they stop to think about their actions, they would realise how foolish they had been to waste time quarreling instead of addressing the actual problem.
I hope I've answered your question:)
Hi Eileen. I agree with you that emotions should always be kept in check. I also think that your point about leadership was interesting. Thank you for reading my post and commenting on it:)
DeleteHello Loshini!
ReplyDeleteI loved the plot twist, and I must say, pig C sounds like an engineering pig hahaha!
As you have poignantly pointed out in your story, the pigs really have very different mindsets and should have communicated better for the greater good! Chinese chopstick analogy - chopsticks are easily broken into pieces individually, but are difficult to break as a collective - something which the pigs completely failed to see (even the engineering pig).
The wolf on the other hand had a good read on the situation and pounced on the pigs in their disarray. I must commend the wolf for being an effective listener, which I feel is an important skill of effective communication. The pigs were impatient, unwilling to listen to each other.
Secondly, I felt that the engineering pig should have better impressed upon his counterparts the real situation at hand. I was honestly quite disappointed that even though he had the best idea, he indulged in unhealthy verbal exchanges - time that he could have used instead to convince his friends. Here would be a great time to apply the 7Cs of effective communication!
What a sad post, your twist of one of the most commonly told childhood story caused the three pigs to die because of ineffective communication =(
Hahahaha BROTHERRRR!!! Okay fine I shall give you the honour of being Pig C LOL. Thank you for reading my post and commenting.
DeleteHello Loshini! What an entertaining story about the 3 pigs with a twist! I would be so sad if this was told as a fairy tale in my childhood though. Poor pigs!
ReplyDeleteDo pardon me for my narrow-minded opinions and blindly fighting for a happy ending for a happy childhood! In this case it is inevitable that the pigs have differences in opinion in the construction of their ideal home of defence. Instead of spending time quarreling on the ideal house to build and refusing to accept each others' opinions, they could have gone ahead with constructing their individual homes and run to each other for help if it does not work (and so that's how the story goes). None of the pigs would have thought that the brick house provides the best security so not putting all the eggs in a basket could have helped save their lives should they have chosen a wrong material to construct their house.
However, such a solution should never be applied in reality, especially in group projects. It is true that certain solutions to problems may be more feasible than others, but we should never execute it individually. Hopefully there is a consensus among the team members and iron out the differences in opinions through effective communication.
Yes you are right:) There definitely has to be consensus among the team mates else there will never be a solution. Thank you for your comments springbeans LOL.
DeleteLoshini,
ReplyDeleteI love the story as a kid, and you did great in the respect of making me, and the rest I suppose, feel like fantasy again! Thanks for that.
However, I have some serious questions about trying to weave communication principles into a fable, because it just seems trivializing, the fact that pigs can want to communicate or that they can even think and act like professionals. I'm not sure about this line of approach for your interpersonal conflict story. Simply put, it didn't make any sense to me in the area of intellectual discussion on interpersonal conflicts. I nearly fell over when I read "they were so engrossed in their little conflict that they forgot to keep silent lest they give away their hideout to the wolf." The fact that I was supposed to provide a credible solution to fabled loud voices is a credible joke. Make sense? There is no context of human intention and rational will when you asked us to provide an interpersonal (or human) solution. You have contradicted the goal of the post---interpersonal conflict, to begin with, and throw everybody into confusion, although it doesn't appear your friends are confused, when they should actually be.
But just in the spirit of giving and taking, I would suggest that the pigs place all subjective opinions about bricks, straw, stick aside and start actually doing something about the bricks, straw, stick. That is the problem with using animals to personify specific human traits, because are we to assume they can think or can't. If the pigs could think, they wouldn't be fighting or quarreling because their brains will straight away tell them the external structure might be made of brick, and the internal decor can be stick or straw laid. Do you see the problem now with your using animals in the story? If the pigs couldn't think, then how could have they come to an interpersonal resolution, much less analytical and logical resolution of whether the brick, straw or stick was the best safe material for protection against the wolf?
Loshini, frankly, the post is full of serious scripting error and mutual contradictions. I can't even find you a solution to the conflict now; I am confused myself.
Might want to submit a new post instead with rational human beings.
Other than that, it was fine!
lol i see what you did there. storytelling eh? applying concepts. good job lol! anyway i was able to appreciate that you were just trying to add some comic relief to the assignment. and i think it was a funny (and tragic) twist to a story we all know. and i think the story though lighthearted, reflects team work in corporate life quite well.
ReplyDeletethe pigs going about the same task in different ways is akin to how different team members approach the same task with different ideas or perhaps just different work ethics. sometimes these differences can cause conflicts to arise so much so that the whole project never takes shape and before you know it, all of you have an invitation to the boardroom and your heads on the chopping block. (wow, that was a run-on sentence.)
i guess the correct way to go about this would have been to shed their egos and acknowledge that they share a common interest and they must function as a team. and as team members, they each have a right to pitch their idea as best they can and remain open to other's ideas or in the cases of different work ethics/personalities, learn to look beyond certain idiosyncrasies and embrace each other as fellow team-mates. it is only then that they can achieve their common goal and have a successful project that they will collectively reap the benefits of.
Hey Ariele:)
DeleteYes you are right. Ego is a very big communication barrier in most fights. Therefore, I agree with you that they should shed their ego. Thank you for your comments Ariele.
Thanks, Loshini, for your effort here. I appreciate the way you've turned to the fairy tale as a means of unveiling the crux of interpersonal conflict within a team.
ReplyDeleteThe moral of this story seems to be that divisiveness leads to a lose-lose situation.
For me, if there is a weakness to your story, it's the use of A, B and C as names. Giving the pigs names would have made this more memorable, as it does in every fairy tale.
The other minor issue for me is that you mix past and present tense verbs. That is possible, but it doesn't work here. See below:
1) they would be protected against the wolf as he cannot destroy the house of stick very easily. >>> (verb tense inconsistency) they would be protected against the wolf as he could not destroy the house of stick very easily.
2) they would be gifted with safety and security as the wolf can never bring a house of bricks >>> hey would be gifted with safety and security as the wolf could never bring a house of bricks
3) Their ego >>> their egos
4) This sentence seems odd to me, especially in light of the previous sentence: "During this conflict, the pigs started getting angry and impatient with each other." Do you see why?
5) Unfortunately for the hungry wolf, he picked up on the shouting and arguing from a distance and found the three little pigs at their hideout. >>> unfortunately?
6) Now my friends, how do you think the pigs could have avoided this situation and what could have been their solution to this unfortunate interpersonal conflict? >> two questions, or one?
You see that I've made a few other language-related comments. All in all though your rendering is interesting in that it shows us once again how fables have at their root real human concerns.
Hi Brad:) Oh yes I do see the mistakes now that you have meticulously pointed them out. I have noted the mistakes and will be careful not to commit the same mistakes in my next post. Thank you very much Brad:)
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