2008-09-05

How not to eat the frog

Yesterday I told about the phrase "eat the frog" in "Eat the tadpoles". And after stumbling over the frogs of borneo site, this post is dedicated to the frogs.

Here are the tips:
  1. Have a diet day where you strictly don't eat frogs.
    What it means in your daily life: Have a regular day where you do some part of your work that motivates you (if really all of your work is demotivating than you should consider changing your job). When you get problems to solve brought from customers or from co-workers or from the boss then put them aside for the next day. If you can't avoid dealing with them then shift your diet day to another day - but do not skip it!

  2. Transform the frog - if you like cocktails, mix your frog and have a frog-cocktail.
    This is the most anti-frog-tip of this post - what it means: If you face a problem that you don't really want to care about then try to modify it in a way that it matters to you. Example: When I have to write a new program to solve a specific problem that I do not consider to be useful also for other customers then I search for some common problem and try to write the program in a more general way so it can be used also to solve similar other problems and hence be useful for more people.

  3. Hand the frog over to somebody who likes frogs.
    When you get notice of a problem it is not necessarily you that has to deal with it. What is a problem to you might be the core service that is provided by other people. Example: If somebody asks you to change a website layout this might bring you in trouble because you hate it struggling with style sheets, but your co-worker might like to do web-design.

  4. Just wait - the frog might prefer returning to the pond.
    The frog-version of: "Some problems dissolve silently if you do not disturb them".

  5. Put it to other similar frogs and create a frog farm.
    If you get often similar problems it might be a good to develop a common strategy dealing with those - making it a core service of your company for instance. This might include to hire a new person (or find one already there).

  6. Build (and sell) anti-frog fences.
    Problems usually do have reasons why they occur. Try to find the reason and implement a solution to avoid facing the problem at all. You can either sell those solution. Look at anti-virus software. Some people are not sure if it is not them also producing the viruses. ;-)

  7. Paint it red with blue stripes, welcome it and create a hype around it.
    The frog version of: "It's not a bug, it's a feature" - and there are many things I associate here... - But important: Check before at Frogs of Borneo if such a frog already exists (you might to use other colors then). ;-)

Related posts: Eat the tadpoles.

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