On Wednesday, 20.6.2018, Timotheus Höttges, Chief Executive of Deutsche Telekom AG, had a speech to his staff.
He talked about “The Frog in The Pot”.
Here are some public abstracts from his discourse, mixed with my thoughts:

The Problem of The Frog

When a frog swims in a pot of water and one slowly heats it up, then the frog doesn’t recognize it and it dies.
This picture is used to show how people react to changes. We also behave like the frog. For example, when a government rises taxes or depresses its folk slowly more and more, the people will go with it and get used to it.
Or when the market changes day by day a little, but a company doesn’t react, then it may happen, that it is too late to change.

The Reasons Why the Frog Doesn’t Spring

Wrong Horizons

The most of us work for their daily business. We look just one day ahead. We have usually no time to watch behind the rim of our plate. We don’t read the right news. When we plan, then it is for the next three weeks. We rarely plan for the next 5 or 20 years.
But the strategy which led us to success 4 years ago, may not work anymore. (For example: see the German to Mexico football game on 17 June 2018 :-) )

The Marx-Problem

The most of us work on very small details. We don’t see it as a whole. Karl Marx called this “alienation of the work”. We stand on a band-conveyor and bring together small particles. But we don’t have the overview. This is not natural. When we work on private things (for example building a hut in the garden), we usually keep it all together.
“Alienation of Reliability” leads to that no one cares about the product or the customer.

The Goony Brain

The brain is usually not analytic

We believe, that the brain is analytic. That’s bullshit. We all are emotional driven – more than we want to have it true.

Bias-Problem

We always look for affirmation for that what we know. It is very hard for us to leave our expectations. We are all manipulable by people, that know how to deal with this effect. (For example, sellers: They create a scenario where you only have one solution: Buy the product).
We are always framed by others. When you do brainstorming, then it is hard to get new ideas, when you sit all together. It would be more effective to ask the members separately.

Anchor Effect

When someone talks about an amount of something, then you also stick to this dimension.

We Trust More Our Brain Than Our Stomach

As I mentioned above, we believe, that we are analytic, but we aren’t. There are a lot of reasons which are hidden below our conscience level, why we act and think like we do. We are not machines, we have requirements.
But we usually have a good “stomach feeling”. It is a kind of long term knowledge which gives us often a good help. We should learn again, to trust more to that.

There are much more strange brain-effects, maybe I show them later.

We don’t dare our selves

Which is the bigger mistake:
· To do something, that doesn’t work
· Or to miss a chance

The Roulette-Dilemma

Nowadays the most of us have a huge amount of opportunities, what to do. Our problem is: We want to do them all. So we take them and work on them, but for each it is too less time and energy left. Instead of trying everything out, we should focus on our most important subjects.

What Helps the Frog To Get Out Of the Water

• Install A Trend Radar (be aware of the things that happen around you)
• Install a regular schedule to plan also the longer future
• Talk with your friends about what’s going on with you and around you. They have different views.
• Keep your friendship diverse. (Don’t hang up only with people, that think the same as you).
• Don’t trust status symbols but trust competent people.

I hope I could give you some advice.
Regards, Achim

(These images are taken from the Power Point Presentation "Sei kein Frosch" from Timotheus Höttges)