Tribal Wisdom of the Dakota Indians: Critique and Analysis: Olga Lednichenko

Dakota Indian tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a colloquial dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

My conjecture - in a submission I made back in summer of 2005 is inline. The short answer is: Wisdom when not followed leads to failure. Below are the examples I gave ( inline) when I supported my hypothesis - back then in the summer of 2005:

Notwithstanding the advise given my the Indians: Modern organizations often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

Buying a stronger whip:

Examples: IBM’s Expiement with [failed] OS/2 warp, PC business, Apple’s NEXT

Changing riders:

Latest one would be Jerry Yang + Yahoo ..

Saying things like “This is the way we always have ridden this horse” :

We have up teem example of this: SO many that we cant even choose the ones that stand out : How about the NIH Syndrome.

Appointing a committee to the study the horse

Just choose your favorite country. Look inside any agency where Government owns around 50 % of Capital and you wouldn’t run short of examples: Here is One : Alstom + French Government

Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses

Now, This is called Consulting :) and if you must have an example: try Xerox

Increasing the standards to ride dead horses

The politically correct name for this would be: ” For this title we need an advanced Degree -> Got an elite MBA”…Ask your HR

Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horses

The Slicker name of this would be: Consulting + C-team. When needing examples: Check Scot Adams - aka -Dilbert

Creating a training session to increase our riding ability:

Isn’t this called Knowledge Management or Performance Assessment or Change management? -> Do I really need to provide examples? - Oh I forgot -Efficiency and Productivity Improvement workshop : Bain - Anyone? How about : Looking at any thing that smells: Large + Government + Consulting

Comparing the state of dead horses in today’s environment

This would be IBM Global Consulting or Mc Kinsey doing Benchmaking. You know those denominator games.

Passing a resolution declaring: “This horse is not dead”

This is everyone’s favorite. Mine for sure. The Psychological Name is Cognitive Dissonance. The economists call it: SUNK COST. The Consultants call it: Bootstrapping and Boot Camp. The Coaches call it ” Believe in yourself”. The Marketers call it ” Umbrella Branding + Brand-Line Extension”.

Blaming the horses’ ancestry:

History is full of examples: Lets see: Nikita Kruschev- dropping a note to his successor. Bush Blaming the Clinton Administration for Osama’s being still alive. Almost every other government does it ceremonially - comeelection time. And if you must have a coprorate example: Just pick any orgnization - fire up google and type this: “your company” + Previous Management + failure and you would hit the news..

Harnessing several dead horses for increased speed:

Look no further - Just match this: French + National Champion + Culture.. and you pick the examples you like best. Here is one of my favorite: Support of CAP ( cost : $41 Billion and going)

Declaring that “No horse is too dead to beat”:

Do you smell a consulting engagement. Pick any organization where: Stock proce = Going South + McKinsey + IBM = Coming In. How about Lucent Technologies?

Providing additional funding to increase the horse’s performance:

Gosh: Where to begin: How about : Japan + Postal. Bush + War. French +Alstom. … need more - google on it.

Do a study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper:

Sorry the new name is : Outsourcing : How about India + IT

Declare the horse is better, faster and cheaper dead:

This is called : Phased Exit. Flashier name would be : EXIT Strategy. Come on> you don’t need examples from- me - do you?

Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses

This is called Investment banking in some cases, Private Equity in Others..Latest is Lehman

Revisit the performance requirements for dead horses

This is called: Sweat Equity + Cultural Fit

Say that this horse was procured with cost as the independent variable:

This is the most subtle form of NOT admitting a mistake + Passing the buck to Finance

Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position:

Are you talking about your boss or the boss’s boss :)

Cheers

Olga Shulman