The “boiled frog phenomenon”
As (Polard, 2004) mentioned, if you take a frog and put it in a pot of extremely hot water, it is obvious that the frog will jump and try to get out of the water. However, if you put that same frog in a pot of warm water and turn the heat very low, that frog will sit there very still; and as the water gradually warms up, the frog will quietly fall into a state of unconsciousness; and eventually let it boil to death.
Now many of us may be wondering why the frog didn’t jump out of the pot. After all, there was no barrier between him and his freedom. Well, a big reason the Frog didn’t jump is due to the fact that its threat detection ability is generated by unexpected changes, not slow but gradual changes. His threat to survival lagged behind his ability to identify those changes.
The whole inference of the frog metaphor for organizations is that we as a whole should try to identify threats to our survival at an early stage when we still have time to plan rather than react to that particular threat; that it will be too late. In addition, we must also learn to lower our threshold for change so that we can identify smaller changes that are taking place in our environment.
A perfect example of the boiling frog would be our government; they continue to ignore the continuing threats to the survival of our economy. Our government tends to react only to sudden changes and situations. If we remember September 11, 2001, that particular incident was a perfect example of Boil Frog. According to many, the government had a great understanding and knowledge of the terrorist attacks; however, they failed to plan ahead and, at the same time, were very careless with the information they did have. As a result, disaster strikes that ultimately leads them to make better changes.
If we dissect the term “The Boiling Frog Phenomenon” in business situations, it will show how the organization is unable to identify slow and incremental threats within the organization and of course react only to sudden changes. By focusing only on the satisfaction of key consumers, the organizations failed to detect the continuous threats that the opposition launches; which could play a very important role in the market dynamics in a short period of time (David, 2007). If we really think about it, we don’t have enough evidence that key consumers will always stick around when our competitors are bringing better products to market.
As a result, organizations should react at an early stage when there is still time to plan rather than find themselves in a sticky situation at a later stage. The organization must do everything possible not to get caught up in the phenomenon of the boiled frog. In fact, it would be to their advantage if they could try to recognize threats that could be detrimental to the organization; otherwise, the survival of such an organization could be extremely difficult in today’s highly competitive industry.