Nothing Works Equally Well Everywhere Everytime Part III

Imagine now that you've found the right management practices for your organization(Part I). With it a little adjusting and tweaking here and there to match your organization, its industry, its market and its culture, it's implemented successfully(Part II). It's so right for you and your organization that it has taken you guys to new heights. So. What now? An infinite ride on the sacred cow to nirvana? No. At least not infinitely. Why? Coz whatever magic it may have brought you for the last 5 to even 10 years (unlikely at this age), nothing, absolutely nothing, will work equally well... forever.

Thinking Faster blog has a good post on Sacred Cows, below I've snipped a few key phrases of the post:

Sacred cows are anything that may have made sense at some time in the past, but are now more likely to get in the way, but no effort is expended to change them

Sacred cows are usually things that made a lot of sense at one time, but did not evolve and change as the organization grew. They've now become roadblocks to productivity and innovation, which energetic and innovative people simply find ways to work around.

I fully recognized that tried and true processes are comfortable and easily understood, but many firms fail to achieve productivity gains because they stick with processes and systems which are less than optimal because someone says they've never done it that way before. I think that argument was probably used to avoid:

- the first caveman cooking meat rather than eating it raw
- the first person to build a shelter rather than live out in the open
- the first person to drive a car rather than a horse

...culture creates sacred cows. A strong culture in an organization seeps into everyone, and group think becomes somewhat inevitable. A strong culture encourages teams to focus closely on some aspects of the business and ignore others.

Read more of it here.

In conclusion, periodically evaluate your 'cows.' Are they still effective, relevant, suited to the change in times and your organization, or has it become unexplainable 'sacred'? Some form of change is inevitable. It's only a matter of time. Only a matter of time before your 'cows' no longer produce the results it was initially bringing in, possibly even causing more harm than good, but yet remains 'sacred' within your organization.

Tags: Sacred Cows, Change