Have you ever seen those huge flocks of starlings flying in formation, changing directions in the blink of an eye? They look like giant clouds of birds moving in the same general direction before they inexplicably change course. According to Smithsonian Magazine, hundreds of starlings can change direction in half a second.
I saw one of these “starling clouds” the other day on my way to WTMJ and it got me thinking about our industry, our state association, and the businesses we are responsible for. I came away with three takeaways:
No. 1: A few birds make all the difference. Smithsonian Magazine actually captured these birds on video then slowed the footage down to better understand what was really going on. It turns out that a small group of birds decide, in a nano-second, that it’s time to change direction, and the entire flock follows suit. These “lead birds” have no fancy titles or formal leadership roles. Apparently, they sense opportunity (favorable wind drafts, insects for meals, e.g.) and decide it’s time to change. In our state association, our industry, or in your TV or radio stations, is there a small, influential group of people who see opportunity and can change where you’re going?
No. 2: Speed wins. It’s mind-blowing how quickly the birds change direction. They don’t stop down for analysis, committee meetings or data dumps. Once they see an opportunity, they act. Are we built for speed, or are we bogged down in process and bureaucracy?
No. 3: It’s simultaneously a team sport and an individual sport. In slow-motion video, you can see that each starling is acting quite individually; that is, they are not all doing the same thing. So, while they are free to act pretty much on their own, to succeed they have to generally all go in the same direction. What a production!
The next time you see one of those big clouds of darting, speeding starlings, ask yourself if your organization behaves like those winged creatures. Are you built for speed, full of influential team members (regardless of title), who can seize new opportunities? Do we encourage wild individualism even as we ask everyone to go the same direction?
It seems likely that our business, our industry and even our own state association could learn a thing or two from these seemingly simple but complex clouds of inspiring starlings.
