Welcome to the public sector and its'...Strategic Thinking

Subj: Welcome to the public sector and its'...Strategic Thinking

Welcome to the public sector and its'... Strategic Thinking

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that;

“When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to immediately dismount”.  

However, in government (and increasingly in corporations), more advanced strategies are often employed, such as: 

("Just HIT it!  HARDER!!! ")

1. Buying a stronger whip.

("Blankety-Blank, cheap_ss accessories!")

2. Changing riders.

and later.... ("#*!*; THAT didn't work, either? ____!")

3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

("OH, YEAH!!! We're gonna' get this varmit on the move, now!")

4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.

("Yes! Let's get some OTHERS involved! We need to be more inclusive.")

5. Lowering the standards, so that dead horses can be  included.

("It's definitely disadvantaged! THAT'S what's wrong!!!")

6. Reclassifying the dead horse as 'living-impaired'. ("Finally! I wouldn't have moved either, if you called me dead! That's so retro!")

7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

("You know;...since our in house advisement board obviously needs a break...")

8. Harnessing several dead horses, together...to increase speed. 

("HOO-RAH!!! Now, THIS has GOTTA' work!!!")  [My favorite! ]

9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance.

("Throw money at it, 'cause things that flutter, spook 'em and make 'em run!")

10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's  performance. 

sotto voce: ("LISTEN to me; that guy's way too heavy for it!") [2nd place]

11. Declaring that, as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and, therefore, contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy, than do some other horses.

("I'm tellin' you; We could have saved lots of money, if we had bought more of these years ago! What were you thinking?!")

12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

("And don't forget the dead ones! After all; that's what this is all about!")

And of course....("WHAT else can we do?! We've tried everything; nothing's changed and at this rate, nothing's going to change around here!")

13 Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

("Look out! We'll see some movement, now! And who was that, that said things weren't going to change around here? There's nothing like a promotion to increase incentive, right?!")

I believe that most of us have seen these strategies in action.
(They reflect some of the above "strategic thinking".)