Perhaps more than any other living creature, the frog turns up in metaphors to explain or demonstrate a work or business situation. Here are some:
Kissing the Frog: when faced with a negative situation that requires doing something unpleasant but, the outcome is a very desirable and positive one, just like the girl who kisses a frog and breaks the spell on the handsome prince who had been originally turned into a frog by a wicked witch.
Swallowing the Frog: In our ‘To Do’ list, we always leave the most boring or unpleasant tasks and focus on the tasks that are easy or enjoyable to do, irrespective of priorities. Therefore, one is urged to do those unpleasant tasks first by saying: swallow the frog. Mark Twain once said: If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first”.
Boiling the Frog: In the 19thCentury, it was claimed that placing a frog in normal water and then gradually increasing the temperature of the water, the frog would not perceive the slow but destructive change in its environment, to the point that it would boil and die. This is in contrast to just throwing a frog in hot water which would react and jump out to preserve its life. Grotesquely, some people, in aid of research actually experimented with this concept and came up with all kinds of conclusions but nothing clear cut to prove this principle. Nevertheless, although the metaphor is questionable, the business point demonstrated here does have some value. Gradual deterioration in business circumstances fosters carelessness and neglect while sudden and big change encourages people to respond in a dynamic way that might rescue the situation.
Wheelbarrow of Frogs: managing or dealing with unpredictable and difficult people while trying to accomplish a tricky task is likened to the effort of transporting a large number of frogs in an unsteady mode of transport that will guarantee the frogs would jump in all directions, making one’s task of gathering them back into the wheelbarrow, impossible.
The Frog and the Scorpion: this is by far my favourite frog metaphor. The point of the story is that no matter what the circumstances facing us, we always revert to type and behave in the way we are wired to behave, regardless of the consequences.
A frog is swimming downstream of a river when it is called over to the riverbank by a scorpion. The frog swims to the edge of the water and asks the scorpion what it wants. The scorpion asks for a ride on the frog’s back to the other side of the river. The frog is naturally reluctant to do that because it is fearful the scorpion may sting and kill it. The scorpion argues that it would never do that because by poisoning the frog it guarantees its own death by drowning. The frog finds the logic persuasive and invites the scorpion to jump on its back. As the frog makes its way to the other side, the scorpion strikes! As the poison begins to kill the frog, it asks the scorpion why it acted so foolishly and brought about their certain deaths. The scorpion shrugs and says: I couldn’t help myself, that’s my nature!
