Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter asked for a job to a timber merchant and he got it. His salary was really good and so were the working conditions. The woodcutter decided to work with full energy and zeal and prove his worth to the merchant.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to fell the trees.

First day he axed and brought 15 trees.

"Congratulations," said the boss and added, "Carry on with the good work."

Highly motivated with the words of his boss, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but managed to cut only 14 trees. On the third day he tried even harder but could manage to cut only 12 trees. Over the next three days, inspite of his best intentions and hard work, the number of trees cut down kept on reducing.

"I must be loosing my strength," thought the woodcutter. He went to the boss and apologized saying that he could not understand as to what was happening.

"When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" asked the boss.

"Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy cutting the trees....."

At this point I stopped and told the audience of middle-level executives, "I do not think there is any need to continue with the story. I am sure the message is clear."

I gave a pause for the message of the story to sink-in. However, in no time I realized as to how naïve I was to assume that every one present was a manager and intelligent at that. Perhaps, I had overlooked the law of averages and the fact that ‘exceptions are always there.' Thus when a not-so-young man got up and asked, "But Sir, I do not see any connection with the axe of the story and the theme of your talk about ‘skill development.'

"Well, I hope you will agree that the axe had to do something with his earnings of the woodcutter which in turn had a connection with his two-square meals a day," I asked the young man.

"Oh, yes Sir," was the instant reply.

"Well then I shall try to show you the connection between sharpening the axe and skill development during lunch time," I replied. To be honest I did not have to do that. The message had driven home, though a bit belated.

My question to you is two-folds: "Do you sharpen your axe and if yes, how often?"

Sharpening the Knowledge - Sharpening the axe in the story is akin to updating our knowledge. The axe was required to cut the trees and earn the livelihood. Our knowledge at the work place and about the working environment and the application of this knowledge gets us the money to buy our bread and butter. The changing times, changing scenarios and ever increasing technology advancement leaves our existing knowledge inadequate to deal with newer and complex problems. Our old knowledge gets blunted with time. Thus there is a need to enhance our knowledge and sharpen the cutting edge of the so-called symbolic axe.

The sad fact, however, is that most of us never up-date our skills. One generally thinks that whatever one has learnt is enough. One feels confident that the job was obtained with the knowledge one had and one can carry on with the job, so where is the need to update it. This however, is a fallacious assumption, because of two factors:

Firstly enough is never enough. The enough you had to begin with keeps getting depleted with time. It is due to the nature's law of wear-out.

Secondly good is never adequate when better is required and expected. Come to think of it, the word good is the first stage of superlative. The other two are ‘better and best!' Somehow we are almost always satisfied with good.  It is neither correct nor desirable. In today's scenario of cut-throat competition and many avenues of climbing-up, one has to be better than others, if not the best.

The Regularity - Having established the need for sharpening the axe of knowledge, the next question that arises is that of the frequency. One thing is definite: once is never enough. It has to be done again and again because the axe keeps getting blunt with every cutting. This is the reason that few organizations that are doing exceedingly well have the maxim: training, re-training and re-re-training.

Another question that is generally thrown at me is, "The organization has no scheme of training. What should I do?"  My answer remains, "The axe is in your hands. It belongs to you. You have to cut the trees to earn money. You have the responsibility to sharpen it. Thus if the management does not provide you with the sharpening stone, go and find out the stone. There are many all around you."

The Grinding Stone - Having established the need for sharpening the axe, the final question I am asked is about the quality of the stone. People generally catch my statement that ‘there are too many stones lying all around.' They want to know how to find out which is the best stone to grind the axe. At this point I just chuckle as if asking, "Am I supposed to provide all the answers. How about finding it out for your selves? I am sure you have the ability to spot talent and quality! "

A final word. Nothing good ever comes cheap. To get the best you have to invest: both in terms of time and money. Spend quality time on internet and with books. Spend a part of your money on getting updated through books and workshops and seminars. I can assure your spending would be worth it and the investment will yield you very high dividends, much more than your expectations.

Give it a try.

(The writer is an educationist, human resource person and a counselor. You can contact him at e-mail: aerosaby@gmail.com)