The Twelve Labours of Hercules - a management fable for our times

Hercules was the son of Alcemene, a mortal queen of Thebes and of Zeus, immortal King of the Gods in ancient Greece. From his contested birth through his disturbed childhood and throughout his eventful life, he was the product and the sum of all the dreadful machinations that the mythological Greek universe could conjure up. He came to represent strength of physique, presence and purpose in the face of incalculable odds and obstacles.

His relentless journey of trial, confrontation and discovery, symbolized by his Twelve Labours, offers us a parable of perseverance, ingenuity and learning in our own pursuit of a hostile host of modern management challenges.

Let’s get one thing out of the way to begin with. A casual glance at the list of the Twelve Labours is enough to reveal them for what they were - an extended exercise in ritualistic pillage and slaughter, an unapologetic assertion of early Mediterranean machismo, an environmentally unfriendly, amoral assault on the integrity of pretty much anybody and anything standing in the way of this abusive, task-driven ogre. For these very good reasons, the Labours make an illuminating study in modern management behaviour. Every care has been taken in the treatment of this extended metaphor to stretch the points of comparison to suit the rhetorical purpose of this piece.

Hercules had proved himself as a young hunter, warrior and scholar in ancient Thebes to such an extent that he was awarded King Creon’s daughter’s hand in marriage. However in a fit of madness induced by his enemies amongst the Gods, he lashed out and killed his wife and their children. Exile and endless penance inevitably followed. His eventual atonement was to be extremely hard earned.

His principal taskmaster and tormentor in this process was King Eurystheus, by all accounts an insecure, mean spirited and small-minded fellow. By divine appointment he became Hercules’ customer for a series of apparently impossible feats of skill and endurance. Let’s take the tasks in their recorded chronological order:

Task One: Killing the Nemean Lion

First there was the matter of destroying the Nemean Lion which had long terrorized its surrounding countryside. This was a simple test of the hunter’s courage, strength and skill in single combat. The lion was overcome by a rain of initial arrow pinpricks, a follow-up series of massive club blows and eventually ruthless strangulation.

This is Hercules the manager establishing his basic technical credentials. He can carry out a clear task through single-minded focus on a well-defined problem and deliver on time and within budget. Throughout his subsequent labours, he wears the lionskin and carries the bloodied club as talismanic symbols of his achievement and potency. His competence to deliver will not be questioned again; the tasks will just get tougher.