When I was out for a walk by the river at the weekend, I was fortunate and inspired to see a flock of geese land on the water.

It reminded me of something that I read many years ago about the lessons that all teams can learn from the behaviour of geese.

The lessons from the geese were originally written in 1972 by Dr Robert McNeish who had been intrigued with observing geese for years.

I have reproduced his thoughts below:

1) As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an “uplift” for the bird following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds 71% more flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are travelling on the thrust of one another.

2) Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the “lifting power” of the bird immediately in front.

Lesson: if we have as much sense as a goose, we will join in formations with those who are headed where we want to go.

3) When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and another goose flies at the point position.

Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership, respecting each other’s unique arrangement of skills, capabilities and talents.

4) The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.

Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging not something less helpful!

5) When a goose gets sick or wounded, two geese drop out of the formation and follow their fellow member down to help provide protection. They stay with this member of the flock until he or she is able to fly again or dies. They then launch out on their own, with another formation or catch up with their own.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as the geese, we’ll stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

This week, why not take a few moments to think about the teams that you are involved with professionally and personally. Is there a lesson from the geese that could be applied to the team to improve its effectiveness?

This week’s quotation:

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.” Henry Ford.

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