Thursday, December 10, 2015

Leadership and The Boiling Frog Experiment - Organization culture

There is a fascinating 19th century science experiment.  As the story goes, researchers found that when they put a frog in a pan of boiling water, the frog just quickly jumped out.  On the other hand, when they put a frog in cold water and put the water to boil over time, the frog just boiled to death.  The hypothesis is that the change in temperature is so gradual, the frog does not realize it’s boiling to death. While the results of the experiment are in question it is a good metaphor for organization cultures.

Indeed, many organisations/companies are unable to see the changes they are affecting them around, specially by competitors and when they do it is usually too late. The business has being highly impacted.

Sources:
Wikipedia: The Boiling Frog
Youtube Video Experiment (used image for this article is a capture from the YouTube Video)

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