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A fairy tale of the decisive frog

A fairy tale of the decisive frog

A part of governance is about roles and therefore accountability. Inherently in roles and accountability lies the area of authority, i.e. who can decide what. This deduction reveals that governance also includes decision making. Before exploring decision making more, I would like to share the following story.

In a large forest, there was a small beautiful little lake. In this lake was a leaf. And on this leaf three frogs sat. It was not a normal day. The day was a shining morning. The mist from the morning was still present. The frogs could feel the sun burning through the mist and warm their skin. If you were there, you could smell the sun from the spring morning.

The small spring flowers in white, yellow and purple were blossoming out of the fresh soil. The water was become warm enough to swim. Not to hot, not to cold. Perfect for a little green frog. One of the three frogs decides to jump into the water.

The question is: How many frogs are left on the leaf?

The easiest and most obvious answer is 2. There were 3 frogs and 1 decides to jump into the water. But why is this still not correct? The correct answer is 3. There are 3 frogs left. The reason is that there is a difference between deciding to start an action and actually doing it.

This is some of the same reasons that the 5 stages of grief (including the valley of despair) influences people at different management levels at different times. The decision to start a organisational change often starts in upper management. They have had some time to think about this decision. When distributing the decision to middle management, this is also has it own valley of despair before communicating to lower management where the process restarts.

It is a bit difficult to explain in short, but the point is the same: In governance, there is an element of decision making. And in decision making, we have to understand that there is a difference between making the decision and executing the decision.

I will explore more on the causality of the 5 stages of grief in a later article.

Can you find any similar examples of this decision making issue?

December 2, 2016 Alex Steninge Jacobsen

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  • Alex Steninge Jacobsen
    Alex Steninge Jacobsen
    Delivery director working in IT outsourcing with service management and governance
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