Boiling frogs

There is a famous story about a frog being boiled alive (yes, really).  I have heard this story a countless number of times, usually in the metaphorical sense.  It's a popular fable used by leadership consultants everywhere!  Basically, we are led to believe that if a frog is suddenly dropped into a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out and live to tell the tale.  If on the other hand the frog is placed into a pot of cool water which is brought slowly to boil, it will not perceive the danger and will slowly be boiled alive.

The leadership lesson is that individuals will generally slowly react (or maybe not even react at all) to gradual or slowly accumulating changes or threats.  These same individuals, when faced with rapid or sudden changes or threats will react appropriately to remove themselves from the dangerous situation.  People (and frogs) should pay attention to the changes going on around them (i.e., the slowly boiling water) and react and escape while they still have a chance.

These kinds of metaphors and stories sound really cool at first.  In fact, there are many similar stories, such as the infamous "death by 1,000 cuts" (which was called "creeping normality" by the author, Jared Diamond, in his book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed) or one of my personal favorites, the poem, "First they came..." by Martin Niemoller (see my old post, "A life of privilege - part I").

While I can fully appreciate the lesson, here's something to consider.  It never quite works out for the frog in either situation, does it?  Either the frog suffers severe scalding injuries from being exposed to boiling water (albeit very briefly, supposedly) or the frog slowly boils to death.  There's one other point to consider.  The story is completely false!  There were apparently some experiments performed in the 19th century (because when else could you do this kind of experiment???) by the German physiologist, Friedrich Goltz, that showed that a frog that has its brain removed would remain in the slowly heated water.  A frog with a normal brain, however, would not.  There's probably a lesson there too, right? 

According to the experts though, the story of the boiling frog is exactly that - a story.  There's absolutely nothing true about it.  For example, a biologist at Harvard University named Douglas Melton said, "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." 

So there you have it.  Next time you hear a leadership consultant tell you about boiling frogs, go ahead and feel free to roll your eyes (it's probably best not to let the consultant see you rolling your eyes though - we have to be polite and professional, after all).  Don't be a boiling frog.  In fact, it's probably best not to be any kind of frog.  That's really the only thing left to say.