Babe was the "feel good" hit of 1995. In it, a baby pig learned how to herd sheep, eventually winning a herding championship. I was thinking about this movie recently, and how the sheepdogs and the pig (Babe) approached hearding differently.

The sheepdog viewed sheep as inferior. They instruct Babe to be ruthless and bend the sheep to his will. Babe didn't want to do this. Instead, he developed a polite style where he treated the sheep as equal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Z0pOWMHRgfI

And at first I thought I had my post! I was going to ask you how you treat the people you work with - like a sheepdog or like a pig. But then I got thinking - in both cases the sheep follow the orders of whoever is herding them blindly. There is no colaboration. Babe is just as much of an authoritarian leader as the sheep dogs. He just says please and thank you.

So what does true collaboration look like?

Geese.

I know what you're thinking. Geese? Those jerks are awful! And from the outside, they are. Geese will attack people, stare down moving vehicles and terrorize neighborhoods. Why would I be talking about them?

Because, despite being complete jerks to outsiders, geese are very collaborative with each other, Studies[1] have shown the geese and other migratory bird collectively decide when to migrate and where to migrate to. And more than that - there is no specific leader when they're flying. When the lead goose starts to tire, another goose moves up to take the lead. Geese do not blindly follow. They share leadership and decision making.

How do you work with your team? Are you gruff and authoritarian? Or are you polite and friendly, but nonetheless authoritarian? Or do you work with your team to achieve the best solution possible, and share leadership duties when you're overwhelmed?

Note(s)

  1. ^ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3293206/https://www.ab.mpg.de/380112/collective-decision-making