Sacrificing Sacred Cows

One of the simplest examples of a Sacred Cow can be found when you write blogs because there’s 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 isn’t 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 — “It’s such a fantastic sentence and it just has to be used.”

This thinking regarding sentences can easily be transferred to operating mechanisms and processes, where you focus your efforts, roles and responsibilities, strategies and tactics — anything that has worked very well in the past but for many reasons doesn’t work anymore.

The pithy term Sacrificing Sacred Cows is used when something revered isn’t working anymore and has to be removed or changed — it’s a course correction needed to bring an idea to life or sustain continued success. Something works until it doesn’t, and the glitter of the Sacred Cow can blind the recognition that there is problem, and what has worked in the past, isn’t anymore. They can be hard to sacrifice, these Sacred Cows — disbelief they’ve 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 doesn’t 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 don’t, the result will be the same — 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 — we’re only human after all.

iamgpe

*The Nash Equilibrium — 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 ‘A Beautiful Mind”.

The best question you can ask... ever.

“What question should I be asking but haven’t?”

There are instances where a culture of “don’t ask; don’t tell” exists or people who hold information back for the perception of control and power but in general, with no malicious intent, most people operate under the simple contract of “asked and answered” — you get what you ask for.

Critical understanding is a result of asking questions, and particularly those questions you don’t know to ask — eventually you exhaust the questions that come innately to you so it’s imperative to surround yourself with people who ask the questions you didn’t think of — or better yet ask them what you should be asking.

In the same vein, another very good question is” What am I missing?” Just make sure you aren’t just talking to yourself.

iamgpe

When you pick up that hammer...

I should make it very clear up front that a hammer is a very important part of any tool box but it can’t be the only tool — and with that said, I shall continue.

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.”

This phrase is affectionately called Maslow’s hammer and is attributed to 20th Century psychologist Abraham Maslow. It finds its way into conversations when action comes about through single mindedness, a lack of capability or a lack of imagination, and usually precedes results that are “less than optimal”.

Recent developments in Toronto have me thinking of good ol’ Maslow, and although will have me skirting around politics, cancel culture and the sins of our past, I wanted to highlight a hammer in action — illustrating how lots of noise will be made but in the end, there is little if any real progress to solving the problem.

Like almost everyone who lives in Toronto (and the surrounding suburbs) I did not know who Dundas Street was named after until recently. It turns out that this 25 kilometer stretch of road through the middle of Toronto (that has been around forever and a day) was named after a Scottish politician named Henry Dundas from the late 1700’s; who although an abolitionist, voted for a four year delay to abolish slavery in Britain — Henry Dundas never came to Canada and as I understand it, had nothing to do with the formation of Canada. Recently a petition was put forth to change the name of the street due to this link with slavery and city council just voted to change the name (I also understand there are a number of other streets being reviewed; some named after actual slave owners). They say the cost will be somewhere in the order of $6 M (which is most likely understated and does not include all the rippling costs that comes with a change of this magnitude). A naming committee will start in 2022 and work would probably start in 2023/2024 with disruption to follow and throughout all of this, the odd press release to explain what is happening (or maybe not).

I can’t help asking myself if this is really the only solution? So for fun, I went into my toolbox and pulled out a knife.

Why not identify a Canadian with the last name Dundas who represents what Canada stands for, and with big fanfare, re-commemorate Dundas Street on their behalf — plaques could be put at each major intersection in honour of the person and her accomplishments, as well as the values of our community. Reframe what Dundas Street stands for, keep it top of mind for anyone who uses it, and give it meaning. As I said, twelve months ago Dundas Street had no meaning to me other than just being a street.

My little exercise with a mental knife was a nice reminder that to be an effective problem solver you have to ask yourself, “Am I using the same old hammer to solve a problem?”

And more importantly, “Is it really working?”

iamgpe