“It is better to believe than to disbelief, in so doing you bring everything into the realm of possibility,” observed Albert Einstein.
Motivation: STEVE NYAMBE
Today I will tackle issues differently. I want us to fly together instead of merely crawling. This is because I know how big you are. Yesterday you were big, today you are bigger, tomorrow you will be the biggest. You harbour greatness in you. The great potential you possess cannot be over-emphasised.
I want to look at you as you are supposed to be and not as you are currently. I am looking at you as a global brand, not as a product of disjointed mediocrity. No!
Thus I want to borrow something from a little piece I picked recently. The piece articulates some powerful wisdom from Indians. This wisdom is said to be passed from generation to generation. You will like it because the wisdom is just good for people who aspire to be on top and in charge of their lives.
Yes, you are just powerful, so let’s start the journey together so that we land in time.
The dead horse
There’s an lndian proverb which says: “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.” There’s no any other way. Just dismount and leave the horse, however it is not like that in most cases. Sometimes people opt for unworking strategies while they are trying to improve their impoverished situations. These strategies include:-
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Buying a stronger whip
A dead horse is a dead horse. No matter how many whips an organisation will use on a dead horse, it will not be capacitated to gather momentum and move forward. The dead horse will just not move. Period!
You can be in that situation. Remember that situation can be changed if you change your thinking.
Change the rider
No matter how dismally a company is performing, changing the chief executive officer is not viable unless we get to know the cause of the low performance. Once that is done, then we will know that we will be in a good position to address the issue of the rider.
Threatening the horse with termination
Poor performance of an entity cannot give room to employee threatening. Threatening only yields demotivation and demotivation breeds resistance, resentment and reluctance. In any case, if we threaten the dead horse with termination, can it in any way improve organisational financial performance?
Can that dead horse be in position to change its results?
Appointing a committee to study the horse
This is an unnecessary strategy in any organisation. If such committees are appointed, they will only be there to milk the organisation.
If we are really focused on organisational growth, why don’t we employ better strategies? Why can we appoint a committee to study a dead horse if we know there is no life in that horse? Can we in any way expect better performance from a dead horse?
Arranging visits to other countries in order to see how other dead horses are performing.
It’s fun. Unbelievable indeed. But yet it may happen.
Remember, best results are best copied from best performers. One speaker once remarked: “If you want to be successful, go to someone who has done it, and duplicate exactly the exact steps he took to reach that destination.”
Lowering the standards so that the dead horse can be included
Excellent coaches are excellent because they know how to pick great players. Sometimes it’s not about the coach, but about how he selects and mentors his players. Such coaches don’t lower their standards to suit the mediocre players. To them, it’s either you perform or you ship out. You meet the standard or you meet your fate.
Reclassifying the dead horse as “living impaired”
Can calling a “dead horse” a “living one” bring life back to it? A better way may be to bury the horse.
If a business unit is not performing, what may be the reason of keeping it afloat? Sometimes business units are kept just to maintain the ego of the top brass.
Inviting outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
This scenario may resemble any underperforming market. Facts may be there that the market is now saturated, thus no product will move no matter how many rigorous marketing strategies we employ. If things seem not to work for you, why not try something else?
Harnessing several dead horses together to improve efficiency
Can we add a zero to another zero and produce a one? Definitely no. If a strategy is not working for your company, try something else. It is true that we must plan, but we mustn’t be servants to our own plans.
Providing additional funding to increase the dead horse’s performance
Root cause analysis is always the best method to apply if we want to provide a solution to our troubled organisations. Many times our companies address the symptoms as opposed to real problems. So if we turn a blind eye to the actual problem, will we be in a position to address it?
Another funny way is the hiring of lighter riders. Can one keep doing productivity studies to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse’s performance? Is it wise? Why not do something about this dead horse mentality that is affecting many organisations in different ways? It can be done. Be blessed.
