How many people have been forced to sit through "Morning Meeting," where nothing meaningful gets discussed but the same old scabs get picked?
A secondary, more common, meaning of the carrot and stick approach comes from the following story:
A man went to a livestock sale and saw a rather handsome ass. He asked the seller how well the ass worked and the seller replied that the animal was a willing worker--Just feed him a carrot in the morning when taking him from his stall and he was ready to go all day. When the man got the ass home, he put him in a stall overnight and took him out, giving him a carrot and harnessing him. No matter what he did, the refused to work, so he unharnessed him and brought him back to the seller. After he described the problem, the seller picked up a heavy stick and struck the ass on the rump.
At that point, the ass became quite biddable. When asked why he did that, the seller responded "Well, first you have to get his attention."