Here is this guy. A single, happening' frog. Easy to deal with - it's only one, right? Pretty easy to control, get messages to & understood, interaction works - together you are engaged.
Now what do you do with an entire bowl of these guys? They are hopping all over, you can't contain them all, you reach for one and another pops out. And the peace sign quickly seems like it is turning into a different (and single-digit) sign!
I recently heard the 'bowl of frogs' theory from Seth Godin at Leadercast 2015 - he attributed the bowl of frogs to Ellen Langer. He was speaking about brave growth....it comes from not hanging on to everything, controlling things, but from allowing growth, magic & change to come from letting some of those frogs escape. Ellen fills us in on "the rhythm of the familiar lulling us into a mindlessness"...instead of a mindfulness
Frogs are all those mindless things that take away from our ability to be creative, brave and magical!
Let's look at (what could be classified) as your frogs:
- all the things you do because you have always done them
- all the people you hang onto in your organization because you think that eventually they will contribute in a meaningful way
- the safe way to get your job done
- the easy-road decisions
What are you going to do with this bowl of frogs? It's mid-year....time to take a moment and evaluate the frogs that are staying in the bowl and letting out the frogs that need to leave - this will give you the space/flexibility/opportunity to let some frogs bubble to the surface; give you some space for magic & growth; drive challenges to where or to whom they belong & most importantly, get you focused on mindfully creating your art...instead of mindlessly working through your day.
