Riding a dead horse

What if you are riding a dead horse? Well, the most logical response would be to move on.

Nevertheless, many of us in the bureaucracy do the exact opposite.

Rooted in the Dakota Indian wisdom, which advises that when you realize you are riding a dead horse then the best strategy is to dismount it, the Dead Horse Theory is a meme that refers to a phenomenon that we willfully ignore our failure and try to keep it running on life support.

Here are the typical strategies we implement at the death of the horse.

? Buy a new whip and a saddle

? Change the rider, or even worse, add more riders to the horse

? Hire new horse caretakers

? Improve the horse’s diet, despite it being dead

? Work on new training programs for the horse

When all these strategies fail, we shift to denying reality so we can justify our failures.

? Redefine the concept of ‘dead’ and claim that the horse is just impaired, so they can convince themselves there is still hope.

? Visit other farms to see how they ride horses, looking for external validation.

? Form cross-functional teams and committees to review the horse from every angle instead of addressing the real problem.

In the end, when we run out of excuses, these are the typical last resort.

? Declare that we can save cost because we don’t have to feed it anymore.

? Start to call it a unicorn so we can pretend like everything is under control and the horse’s death doesn’t bother us at all.

It isn’t rare that we pour time and resources into hiding the problems instead of solving them. We’ve seen these companies that blame the marketing strategies or government policies for their poor sales. However, most of the time, the root problem is the poor product concept that failed to fit into the market.

How come so many teams and organizations are obsessed with their dead horses? Why can’t they let it go and focus on the real problem?

To be fair, it’s in our nature.

We get attached to plans and tasks because of the resources and effort we already spent. So, as a solution, we keep ourselves busy to pretend we are making progress, pursuing short-term relief.

But the actions without results will not help anyone. It’s not about doing things more unless you are getting things done. Sooner or later, the moment of truth will come. Avoiding the truth only worsens the situation.

Sometimes, it takes courage to do the right thing. If dismounting is the only way to move forward, you must be brave and face the truth head-on.

The horse is dead, accept it and move on.