The 'boiled frog' parable states that if you put a frog in boiling hot water, he would immediately hop out. But if you put him in water that is lukewarm, he may like it, and may even enjoy himself. Then you slowly and gradually, turn up the heat but by this time, the frog is so sleepy that he will not have the energy to jump out. And this brings him to his tragic end. Peter Senge (1990) developed this parable to teach organizations and individuals about threats surrounding them, some of which may be slowly catching up on them though they appear invisible or harmless at the moment. .

             Threats which are immediate appear far more powerful and destructive than the ones which are invisible fail to trigger appropriate response. However the bottom line is: threats which we cannot see or feel are just as destructive and powerful as the immediate ones. In other words, threats in all shapes and forms are still just that- threats. Hence they must not be ignored. Many people who get fired have complained that they didn't see it coming. Most of them feel it was something they experienced out of the blue and couldn't possibly understand how it happened to them. The problem is that even if there was not anything wrong with their performance, there were external conditions which contributed to their termination. These external conditions were the ones we thought we were immune to. We felt that downsizing was something happening to other people. But these threats were real and it was only when they slapped us real hard that we realized just how blind we had been acting.

             Michelle is high performing, very energetic and almost indispensable worker in our office. She is one of the few people I know my organization cannot do without. She is good at her job as a copyrighter but her effectiveness lies not only in that. Michelle is a very helpful person who would often go out of her way to help others with their jobs.