ANYONE FOR BOILED FROG?

There's a story, very prevalent in Business Administration lore, that if one drops a frog into a pot of boiling water, the frog will quickly kick its way out of the hot water. However, if one places a frog into a pot with room-temperature water, the frog will comfortably float around, not attempting to escape, even as one gradually heats the water until it boils and ultimately, one has a boiled frog.

The concept being illustrated here relates to change management. Those who cling to the notion of incremental change use the boiled frog as an example of successful change management and are convinced that disruptive change would cause chaos and everyone would be dodging mad-as-hell frogs jumping all over the place.

This story has been around so long there's a good chance it's just an urban myth. I mean, who would want to boil a whole frog in the first place, and what business owner would be so successful if they kept comparing their employees to frogs? Anyway, I thought of this concept yesterday when I realized I had to do something about my left lower leg swelling up.

By the end of each day the past week or so, my left lower calf and ankle were much bigger than my right. There's no doubt it is because of the tumor in my upper calf muscle -- either it is interrupting the normal lymphatic drainage pattern or it is getting inflamed from my treatment and causing local swelling which then, by gravity, settles into my lower leg and ankle. Now this is a fairly simple problem to solve. I could reverse gravity and walk around on my hands all day (not very practical and not within my capabilities anyway), I could keep my leg elevated (within my capability, but, again, not very practical if I'm trying to maintain some semblance of normal activity) or I could use some external compression device such as an elastic bandage or elastic stocking to keep the fluid from accumulating in my leg. I found a small elastic bandage in the cupboard and -- problem solved.

However, I felt the water temperature go up a degree or two.

I have had to accommodate to a number of other little things -- not drinking any wine or other alcohol because my liver enzymes have gone up, having to be very selective in what I can eat without causing pain in my jaw from a tumor which has invaded the chewing muscle, having to lie down and rest several times a day to minimize pain and restore some level of energy, not doing a full day of anything away from the house because it is just too taxing on my body, not being able to run or walk like I used to, having to limit my exercising to the point I hardly even break a sweat.  All little things that, by themselves, are not that big of a deal, but each raises the temperature of the water a little. Pretty soon, I may be a boiled frog.

By the way, these thoughts came to me as I was sitting in my hot tub last night, massaging my leg...