The frog dilemma
How to be ready to change?
We have been always told that the frogs won't jump if you put them in cold water and boil the water slowly. That was told as something that is appropriate in business life as well especially in the consultancy business. If you change the circumstances slowly everyone will adapt accordingly and no one will be against the change. But is that really true in every case?
Professor Doug Melton, Harvard University Biology Department, says, “If you put a frog in boiling water, it won’t jump out. It will die. If you put it in cold water, it will jump before it gets hot — they don’t sit still for you.”
“There are certain cases where gradual change is almost preferred,” Hofman commented. “The change myth assumes a very narrow view of people. If frogs can do it, people definitely can.”
Either it is in business or personal life, change is always hard, no matter if you take it slow or fast. Sometimes it should be fast so that people dont have the time to thin ( like governments are doing sometimes )
Organizational change is not optional to keep pace with business. All organizations, at one time or another, face substantive modifications to some aspect of their business. We have seen the fastest change and adaptation during COVID, even the most conservative industries moved from offices to work from home models. Sometimes those changes can only be done in situations as we had during the last 1.5 years. The same changes also happen during and after wars as well.
Change is a constant, ongoing process in our lives. We should try to accept change as it is, not fight to resist it. But we should also not think that the frog will not jump if we boil the water slowly. Everyone has their own limits and will be sitting without doing anything.
The key is not to expect too much.
You should be ready for ups and downs. If you learn not to expect unrealistic things, you will not have problems.
