Our personal boundaries governed
by our experiences, beliefs, and habits can sometimes obscure our vision of
reality and become harmful. This state was named the pike syndrome after
the results of the following experiment carried out by Dr Mobius.
In 1873
a German zoologist Dr Karl Mobius conducted a famous experiment with a pike –
an aggressive fish predator. Dr Mobius put a glass divider in the middle of a
tank. On one side he dropped small prey fish, and put a pike into another. The
pike started to charge the minnows. It charged over and over, and each time it
would hit hard into the glass wall. It persisted even when impact was so strong
that it would float upside down for some time before recovering and finally gave up after
three months. After six months the glass wall was removed and
the pike roamed freely among the minnows, peacefully sharing the tank. The pike
survived by eating the food given by Dr Mobius. Other researchers have repeated
Mobius’s experiment and results were the same. Some have actually allowed the
pike to starve to death while minnows swam safely around.
To free
ourselves from the pike syndrome we need to become aware of and question routines
that no longer serve us before they put us in serious trouble. The same applies to organisations when their core
business values are being unknowingly eroded by actions driven by inherited,
ineffective habits and practices.
It's time for a reality check.
