Sacrificing Sacred Cows
One of the simplest examples of a Sacred Cow can be found when you write blogs because thereâs a small number of words in play. Occasionally, you write a sentence that you like very, very much but as you continue to build your thoughts and as the page expands, you start to realize that the sentence just isnât appropriate anymore. You refuse to edit it out and actively rationalize why it needs to stay. No matter how much it is not working you want to keep it â âItâs such a fantastic sentence and it just has to be used.âThis thinking regarding sentences can easily be transferred to operating mechanisms and processes, where you focus your efforts, roles and responsibilities, strategies and tactics â anything that has worked very well in the past but for many reasons doesnât work anymore.
The pithy term Sacrificing Sacred Cows is used when something revered isnât working anymore and has to be removed or changed â itâs a course correction needed to bring an idea to life or sustain continued success. Something works until it doesnât, and the glitter of the Sacred Cow can blind the recognition that there is problem, and what has worked in the past, isnât anymore. They can be hard to sacrifice, these Sacred Cows â disbelief theyâve become a problem or suboptimal, aspects of being human and our strategies*, the perception of sunken costs or one of the seven deadly sins; they all keep sacred cows alive and well.
It is easy to sacrifice a sentence in blog when it doesnât work and much, much easier than shifting a company strategy or a blowing up a process tied to revenue. In the end though, if you donât, the result will be the same â a poor product that over time becomes obsolete. Adapt or die is the harsh reality of business, life and even humble blogging and the result of sacred cows not dealt with appropriately. How they are dealt with can range from the subtle to the dramatic but first they need to be recognized.
And sometimes that is hard â weâre only human nature after all.
iamgpe
*The Nash Equilibrium â The Nash equilibrium is a decision-making theorem within game theory that states a player can achieve the desired outcome by not deviating from their initial strategy. Yes, he is the one in the movie âA Beautiful Mindâ.
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Comments
Grahamđ Edwards
1 year ago #2
I love whiteboards @Jerry Fletcher ⊠thanks for sharing.
Jerry Fletcher
1 year ago #1
Graham, You have put your finger on one of the most difficult situations to deal with that confronts consultants. One of my clients, a supply chain expert has a novel way of convincing management (to include marketing and sales) when they need to trim their customer roles. He simply asks if he can use a whiteboard in their conference room. He proceeds to show them how analyzing sales in terms of volume sorts into 3 levels of customers with ROI matched to each third. Frank shows them how to go from cost to cash. See an example of one of his whiteboard talks here: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/714201796