A Day at Works

Ancient wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in organizations we often try many other strategies, including the following:

1. Changing riders
2. Buying a stronger whip
3. Falling back on: “This is the way we’ve always ridden”
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse
5. Arranging a visit to other sites to see how they ride dead horses
6. Increasing the standards for riding dead horses
7. Appointing a group to revive the dead horse
8. Creating a training session to improve riding skills
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in today’s environment
10. Changing the requirements so that the horse no longer meets the standard of dead
11. Hiring an external consultant to show how a dead horse can be ridden
12. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed
13. Increasing funding to improve the horse’s performance
14. Declaring that no horse is too dead to beat
15. Doing a study to see if outsourcing will reduce the cost of riding a dead horse
16. Buying a computer program to enhance dead horse performance
17. Declaring a dead horse less costly than a live one
18. Forming a workgroup to find uses for dead horses
19. Changing performance requirements for the horse

And … if all else fails …
Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position. Or, in a large corporation, make it a Vice President.