Ritualized greetings, such as mouth-licking in wolves or a handshake in humans, are a form of information gathering, and they have evolved among social animals to strengthen bonds and build trust.
Experts believe birds come together in compact masses because grouping together offers safety in numbers from predators, such as falcons. Such predators find it hard to target one bird in the middle of a hypnotising flock of up to thousands. Other reasons for murmurations include include the warmth of a group at night during the winter. They also gather to exchange information, such as good feeding areas. Organisations can learn a lot from such behaviour.
Sycophants are not wondering what is best for the organisation, they are only interested in what is best for them. If you ask them about for a SWOT analysis of your company product or opportunities for disruption, they will spout some generic nonsense. However, ask them about section 2, article 3c, paragraph 2 of the company handbook and they will recite it to the letter. In essence, they know how to survive in an organisation all the way to pension, riding on the coattails of those in power.
One of the challenges that so many organisations and individuals face is that we have grown accustomed to a steady and stable environment. The relative stability of the post-war period, an anomalous period in world history, has somewhat contributed to our conditioning for stability. As a result, our mental and operational flexibility has atrophied. Progress and change only happen when we adapt, when we permanent reinvent, when we understand that chaos and order are bedfellows.
Swiss cheese Model for Ideas Aidan McCullen. Have you noticed a colleague who was once full of ideas, who has gone unusually quiet? Perhaps you may assume they are just disinterested? You may think they are having a bad day? Perhaps instead, they have fallen prey to a corporate lobotomy? Perhaps they are worn down? Perhaps they just couldn’t be bothered any more.
Prometheus risked everything to give us a spark, a fire within. Therefore, it is our responsibility to kindle that spark, to keep it alive and to nurture it on to future generations. We are all born with a spark, however small and however clouded by circumstance. Many of us all our spark to fizzle as we grown older or allow others to extinguish or douse our inner flames. While we will not suffer torture like Prometheus did, not embracing our spark can result in mental torture throughout our existence.
The word coach comes from stagecoach. A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys from point A to point B. Most of us will know these from western movies or old TV shows like “Little House on the Prairie”. The concept of a stagecoach is a wonderful analogy for leadership.