The Issue of a Dead Goat
I was chatting with another COO of a smaller startup recently. He said something that resonated with me. “I know how you feel. Your CEO comes up with another crazy idea and just says — ‘make it happen’, like it’s that easy”. I laughed it off nodding and didn’t say anything. His comment made think about the story of a dead goat.
There must have been a thousand of crazy, genius, brilliant, out-there, innovative ideas my CEO came up with over the last five years. It’s what I’ve signed up for and I love it. Making sense of those ideas, working out which one I have to use best judgement to push back on, reason with him, or concede and get it done. But it all boils down to one night we, together with our wife’s, were out for a dinner. He is not a fan of mowing the lawn, so he said: “I was thinking about getting a goat. Then I wouldn’t have to mow the lawn — just tie it up at different spots and move it around as it eats grass. I don’t have to worry about mowing at all”. Immediately, I asked: “And what are you going to do when the goat is dead? Let me guess, you call your operations guy to come around and fix it, right?” It was all in good fun, although there was truth to it and we both knew it.
We all work for someone, weather it’s a manager, leader, board of directors or shareholders. There will be those moments when leaders think up a storm, and there may be a problem left to solve after the storm. Well if you ever get one of those ideas that are out there, and you need to push back — tell them the story about the dead goat.
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