Do you have a sacred cow holding you back?
According to Wikipedia, the term sacred cow is used for a
person, institution, idea (often a theory) or ideology that
is immune (usually unreasonably so) from criticism or
opposition.
A frustrated co-worker once came to me to vent about a problem
that he had during a brainstorming session. The purpose of a
brainstorming session, he (correctly) explained, is to get all
of the ideas out, and then narrow them down based upon their
feasibility. The problem that they were having was that too many
people had gone to the session with pre-conceived notions of
what wouldn't work. So much so, that every time a creative idea
came out, it was shot down. The results they walked away with
were less than desired.
He went on to tell me that his biggest frustration in his
professional career has been all of the sacred cows that he has
encountered. He explained that every company that he has ever
worked for (and probably every company in existence) has self
imposed, unnecessary constraints that limit their problem
solving creativity and ability to innovate. Frustrated, he told
me that every once in a while you need to go out and
slaughter one of the cows.
I couldn't agree him more. In today's world, change is
inevitable. Each one of us must decide whether we are going to
embrace it or fight against it. The choice to embrace change
will likely lead to improvements in the efficiency and
effectiveness of what we do. Fighting against change will
probably result in anger, frustration, and wasting time - and in
the end you will still have to make the change anyway.
We all have sacred cows at our jobs and in our lives. It seems
like successful people and successful entrepreneurs are able to
recognize those unreasonable constraints, slaughter some cows,
and discover new and better ways to do things.