Penguins reveal the true essence of bioteams
Stumble It!Many people have been enchanted by the amazing video “The March of the Penguins” and most know that they have no leader. However few people go on to ask the obvious next question “If they have no leader then how do they know where to go?”....
We all know more than any of us
This is a very important question because it is right at the heart of the difference between traditional human teams and nature’s teams.
The answer is, of course, no one penguin knows where to go but collectively together they know where to go. In other words no single penguin may know the whole route – perhaps only fragments but if you add all these fragments together then the group as a whole know the route.
This is known as ‘collective intelligence’ and is also a key feature of other biological teams such as ant colonies and bird flocks.
Humankind is the only species who trust that a small group of "leaders"can know the best way for their whole group
Human team management is classic 'command and control' leadership – great for warfare but lousy for organisational teams especially when they are distributed or mobile or semi-formal or with loose boundaries.
Biological teams use a style known as “self-organising teams” where instead of relying on a few leaders every member of the group has the potential and capability to be a leader in some domain and at some time.
This is the first pillar of bioteams – converting ‘command and control’ teams with elite leadership structures into ‘self-organising teams’ with distributed peer-peer leadership structures.
This does not mean leaderless teams – nothing could be further from the truth – rather teams with many leaders each of whom operate in different domains - all interacting together in a highly co-operative and effective way.
Recover your lost 'group messaging instincts'
The other major pillar of bioteams is the use of short messages rather than documents to produce effective action – this is described in more detail in Group Messaging Instincts: how to recover them.
For a copy of The Bioteamming Manifesto visit changethis.com where you can download the full 35-page manifesto written by Ken Thompson and Robin Good for free.
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Comments
Fantastic picture & comments pl send me more individual devlopment poster i.e. good observer ,team work ,goal setting, time manegment,effactive communication etc.
Posted by: Bhavsar Vikram | May 6, 2007 2:03 PM
Bioteams Books Reviews
The Starfish and The Spider
The Book "The Starfish and The Spider" uses the amazing capabilities of starfish to survive and regrow damaged limbs as a powerful metaphor for leaderless organisations.
Buy it now from:
Amazon.Com
Amazon.Co.UK
Related Bioteams Features Articles
The law of requisite variety and team agility
An obvious characteristic of nature’s best teams is that they seem to have just the right amount of structure to handle their environments. Too much and they would be slow and cumbersome; too little and they would lack the sophisticated responses to protect their position in the food chain.
New research on beliefs of High Performing Teams
We have completed a short research project into the beliefs of three High Performing Teams (HPTs) in a large software organisation. Our research indicated that four beliefs were universally held: clear and public accountability, trusted competency, give and take and outcome optimism. Five other beliefs were largely or partially held suggesting that an HPT may have between 4 and 9 key beliefs.
Teamwork: learning from dolphin pods
The seven habits of highly effective dolphins.
According to a excellent site dedicated to Dolphins at Western Illinois University (Illinois) Dolphin social behavior is one of the most complex and advanced in the animal kingdom and offers us a number of insights into effective bioteaming.
