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The “Idiots” Corner by “Billy Bob Smith” Sacred cows - An idea, custom, or institution held, especially unreasonably, to be above criticism. Or, how about - Someone or something which has been accepted or respected for a long time and peo- ple are afraid or unwilling to criticize or question. Now mine - Sacred cows are products, policies, rules, organizations, behaviors, etc. (I could go on for pages of examples, but you have better things to do than read my idiotic comments) which are protected for no valuable or commonsense reason. I guarantee your organization, or a relationship you are in, has a few or even many sacred cows. Before I give you some stupid real-life examples, let me share a few of the common reasons and consequences of an organization’s or business’ sacred cows: Causes, contributors, or sources - Egos out of control, arrogance, immaturity, stupidity, a lack of common sense, an - I’m always in control mindset or attitude, I’m always the smartest person in the room. (Want to add any?) Know anyone like this? Work with or for anyone like this? Consequences - Loss of customers, loss of market share, loss of good employees, revenue, respect, competitiveness -get it? Sacred cows lead to loss. Or let me put it more simply for some of you who have this as an issue and don’t know it or don’t want to be made aware of it - they will put you out of business. Okay, as promised, a few real examples I have witnessed during my long career consulting with a few of my stupid clients: 7 One organization had a product which had not sold anything in over ten years, but they still kept manufacturing it and increas- ing inventory. Why? It was the invention of the owner. 7 Another company kept losing its best employees after only a few months and this was going on for years. The human resources department kept telling the president they needed to stop these exits as it was costing the organization millions of dollars each year in recruiting, lost employee issues, and various other direct and indirect costs. The president’s response: “Look, we are who we are. If the new employees don’t like it, let them leave.” Come on, dude. Give me a break. Ever heard of changing management, letting go of stupid ideas, or common sense? 7 Okay, just one more - and one of my favorites. This was a billion dollar company where they kept losing a few vice presidents every month. The president decided to have an emergency senior staff meeting to discuss this vital concern. It was planned for a Monday morning the following week. His memo included a severe message, saying everyone needed to attend and be willing to share real-life examples so they could get to the heart of the matter and fix it. Well, Monday morning came and everyone was in the room but the president. He had called his assistant and told her to tell everyone he couldn’t make the meeting, but to go ahead and solve and fix the problem, and he would catch up with everyone later in the week. Want to know why he didn’t show? His routine golf appointment, which he had for years with his three partners, was cancelled for Sunday and rescheduled for Monday morning. I’m not making this stuff up. Let me close with a simple question: Do you have some really stupid sacred cows in your organization? Why? Billy Bob Contact him via e-mail to michele@worldwidedrillingresource.com --- *+ )#)('-()$* !(& )(%#'" +)""+ ,'.*,+ -'"/ 0 . 1 1 1 1 42 NOVEMBER 2017 WorldWide Drilling Resource ®