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:
- Changing riders
- Buying a stronger whip
- Falling back on: “This is the way we’ve always ridden”
- Appointing a committee to study the dead horse
- Study other companies to see how they ride dead horses
- Increasing the standards for riding dead horses
- Appointing a group to revive the dead horse
- Creating a training session to improve riding skills
- Comparing the state of dead horses in today’s environment
- Changing the requirements so that the horse no longer meets the standard of dead
- Hiring an external consultant to show how a dead horse can be ridden
- Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed
- Increasing funding to improve the horse’s performance
- Declaring that no horse is too dead to beat
- Doing a study to see if outsourcing will reduce the cost of riding a dead horse
- Buying a computer program to enhance dead horse performance
- Declaring a dead horse less costly than a live one
- Forming a workgroup to find uses for dead horses
- Changing performance requirements for the horse
- Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position
