Beating A Dead Horse

Now here's a Wood Badge ticket item to ponder! I came across this piece about Beating A Dead Horse from ("I-used-to-be-a-lot-of-things, but-I'm-feeling-much-better-now, thank you") fellow blogger Lorie McGraw in my Scouts-L archives that is too good not to pass on. Wood Badgers should get a chuckle! Thanks, Lorie!

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Cherokee tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. Pretty simple, don't you think? This wisdom dates back at least several hundred years. Modern tribes, however, sometimes feel that ancient wisdom can be improved on or replaced. Listed below are some present-day attempts to deal with the dead horse problem.

1. Buy a stronger whip.
2. Change riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Hire a consultant to provide an outside perspective to the dead horse situation.
5. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they deal with dead horses.
6. Decrease the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appoint a triage team to revive the dead horse.
8. Create and implement a training plan to increase the riding ability of those tasked to ride dead horses.
9. Create a link between the state of a dead horse and the environment.
10. Pass a resolution declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Blame the horse's parents.
12. Harness several dead horses together for increased performance.
13. Provide additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
14. Undertake a long-term study to see if other contractors can ride it cheaper.
15. Simply declare that the horse is "better, faster, and cheaper" while being dead.
16. Declare that "No horse is too dead to beat."
17. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
18. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
19. State emphatically that this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
20. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
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--WB Scribbler