But asses do evolve…

Donkeys don’t evolve.

“You mean jackasses. Because they’re sterile.”

No, donkeys.

Jackasses evolve because horses evolve and donkeys could evolve if we let them.

Cats evolve – we want a prettier cat, a fluffier cat, a hypoallergenic cat.

Dogs evolve – we want a sleeker dog, a faster dog, a more aggressive dog.

Horses evolve because we want a faster horse, a taller horse, a smaller horse.

But donkeys don’t evolve because we are happy with what a donkey is.

Donkeys are, by definition, the status quo of evolution.

We (humans) cannot imagine a differently shaped donkey, a faster donkey, a stronger donkey, a taller donkey, or a donkey that is less stubborn.

Maybe scratch that last notion.

Donkeys can pull the exact amount of material we need them to pull.

Donkeys move at the exact speed we need them to move.

When we think of a better donkey, we think of something different.

Something that isn’t a donkey.

This artificial limitation we impose on “what a donkey is” gets applied to our company too.

When we look around our company and think “we need a donkey to move stuff from here to there” we artificially limit ourselves by what can be moved from here to there, and how fast it can be moved.

When we want to move more, or we want to move it faster, we think of a different donkey.

But we don’t buy a camel, or an ox, because we don’t want a camel (they spit too much) and we don’t want an ox (because they sweat too much).

So we stick with the donkey.

And we get stuck with what a donkey can do because that is what donkeys were evolved to do.

How many problems in your company are being solved by donkeys?