Sunday, July 5, 2009

The boiling frog

Slow change in organisations and even in personal life are more easily absorbed than sudden changes which are resisted. An interesting metaphor to explain.

If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death.
—Version of the story from
Daniel Quinn's The Story of Boiling Frog