Somewhere in your agency, sacred cows lurk in the hallways. They’re wandering through the HR department, or chewing cud in the CEO suite. You might even have one curled up in your own office.
Sacred cows are the unquestioned rules, dogmatic systems and ways of working that seem off-limits to change.
The problem is, sacred cows block potential. If you blindly accept a pattern, or worse, feel forbidden to challenge it, then you can’t improve it. You become stuck. And stuck is the antithesis of everything we stand for.
Only by testing the legitimacy of a sacred cow can you create the best solutions. Here’s an example. In our industry, the following statement is accepted fact:
Advertising agencies are creative.
We share a vested interest in maintaining this reality. We don’t even think to question it.
Yet this statement is only partially true. Yes, we are the most innovative group around—when it comes to our clients. However when it comes to our own companies, we’re remarkably unimaginative. Rarely do we stop, look around and reinvent the way we work.
The reality is, certain agency practices are ineffective, obsolete or even unfair. Yet they remain standard policy.
http://www.commarts.com/columns/slaughter-sacred-cows.html
Stand back, and take a big picture look at the way you do business. Challenge each practice to see whether it’s a smart way of doing business, or a sacred cow. Poke it. Test it. Make it uncomfortable. Make it prove itself.
If a practice still seems right after being challenged, then great. Keep going. If you find a cow, get right to the core of the problem. Usually it’s benign neglect, but sometimes it’s complacency, or myopic accounting, or ego, or something equally awkward to bring up.
At that point, start talking about it.
Over dinner.
While eating a bloody rare steak.
