Birdbrains
What can a flock of birds teach us about running a business? The entire flock moves in unison. They move quickly and fluidly. They can turn on a dime. They can dive, twist, turn, or climb. But who’s controlling them?
Flocks of birds move so quickly that we assume that there must be a leader. Someone must be telling them what to do. It’s like a marching band – the band leader directs the traffic and coordinates the musicians.
So where’s the band leader in a flock of birds? The simple answer is that there isn’t one. They can turn in an instant because they share information quickly. Essentially, they follow rules in a “neighborhood”. Each bird has a neighborhood consisting of other birds in close proximity. When a bird in the neighborhood does something, other birds in the same neighborhood respond. The rules are very simple – for instance, if the bird on my left turns left, I’ll do the same. If the bird on my right turns left, I’ll move out of his way (by climbing or diving) and then turn left as well.
In human organizations, by contrast, we spend a lot of time on command and control. That’s because we’re very good at processing information but not so good at sharing it. So we have to determine who can access information, what they can do with it, and who they can share it with. We also have to determine the single version of the truth. In some cases, we may spend more time perfecting the command and control system than in producing goods and services.
So how could we behave more like birds? We would need accurate information flowing to all members of our flock at the same time. We need it organized in such a way that it’s relevant, easy to use and easy to understand. Then we need to let each member of our flock know that they have the authority to act on the information. They don’t have to wait for the band leader.
Can we do this today? With the right business intelligence tools we can. At Lawson, we already offer exceptional business intelligence tools. And we will continue to enhance them so that you can share information more quickly and more effectively. Just think, your company should soon be able to emulate the coordinated intelligence of a flock of birds.
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