Confusion is fine. Chaos is Good. Uncertainty is a positive sign. It is okay to have questions. The problem is that so many of our solutions in life have more basis in tradition and past revelation than they do in solving today's problems. A few years back we were preparing for a pot-luck dinner at church. Not knowing any better, I suggested that the food tables could be moved out from the wall in order to have two lines - one on each side of the table.
The sweet old lady in charge looked at me in utter horror, "We have never done it that way, but I guess it would be alright."
Organizations often have similar issues which eventually destroy their effectiveness.
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians - passed on from generation to generation - states, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."
Unfortunately, in today's business, governmental, religious and academic bureaucracies a whole range of far more advanced strategies are often employed.
These include:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Beating the horse.
4. Appointing a committee to study the horses' motivation.
5. Visiting other sites to see how others ride dead horses.
6. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
7. Re-classifying the dead horse as “living impaired”.
8. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
9. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase the speed.
10. Attempting to mount multiple dead horses in hopes that one of them will spring to life.
11. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.
12. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance.
13. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
14. Rewriting job requirements to allow dead horses to be used.
15. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
Check out "Disorganize or Bust"
Bill Johnson
