LTYM - The Frog and the Scientist

Letters to a Young Manager

The Frog and the Scientist, #312
LTYM >

Please note that this letter is in-process; the following are my notes

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There's an old story about a scientist who wanted to measure how far a frog could jump with constraints. He trained a frog to jump whenever he commanded "jump!". He first measured the base case of no constraints and found the frog averaged a meter per jump. He then tied one leg to its body, and repeated the experiment, taking careful notes. The average dropped to half a meter. He continued by tying two legs, then three; each time the average distance was cut in half. He then tied all four legs and yelled "jump!". Nothing. "Jump!" He commanded louder. Nothing. He then wrote the following observation in his notebook: "when you tie all four legs of a frog, they go deaf."

If we broaden the PM "iron triangle" to budget/headcount
Quality of resources
Objectives of strategy
Time to complete

Constraining all four means we cannot move no matter what we say.

also see the alternate version, here: http://www.jupiterscientific.org/sciinfo/jokes/biologyjokes.html

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References...

Takeaways:

If we tie down our people with too many constraints, they can't move forward

Discussion Questions:

For Further Reading: