So when the BBC announced a new 2 part series on swarms, I knew that I wanted to catch it - partly to revel in the beauty that I knew the camera teams would have captured, but mainly to learn more about HOW swarms behave and how those incredible effects are achieved. That critical question "why don't fish bump into each other" has haunted me for some time. (Regular Sprog readers will not be surprised by the depths of 'sad' that I can plumb).  

"One Million Heads, One Beautiful Mind" was the sub title of part 2 of BBC's new programme on Swarms which finished last night. The title pleasingly telegraphed the conclusions around collective intelligence. The programme itself duly delivered some breathtaking cinematography that left me incredulous as to the sheer intelligence of the rest of the animal kingdom, and I could not fail but juxtapose the stupidity of us humans. For all our arrogant strutting at the top of the evolutionary tree, mere insects are able to make us look neanderthal. We may be the only animals on the planet to have developed consciousness, but as we have learned language to communicate, politics to organise ourselves, and trade to exchange our skills, we seem to have lost our collective intelligence.

Seven lions are gathered around a water hole in Namibia at dusk. Six are drinking and one is listening. The lion who is on listening duty hears a wildebeest a half mile away. Forty seconds later, the wildebeest is dead, and all seven lions are eating. There was no verbal communication, no argument, no hesitation. No meetings, no politics, no research. The six lions knew instinctively when the listening lion moved that they had to go too. These animals cannot communicate with the same sophistication as us; they do not possess the intellect to organise themselves efficiently, and yet they operate as a team and ruthlessly achieve their objectives.This is a pretty well known story (an everyday story of Mr and Mrs Lion and their extended family; their trials and tribulations, hopes and dreams; soon to be serialized on the Soap Geographic channel), often used to highlight how teams in business could operate, if only they trusted each other, respected each other’s roles, and had that most precious of all corporate commodities, a common purpose.

Now we could spend time researching just how the animals, insects, birds and fish communicate and achieve such seamless collective effort. We could analyse what they do that is different to us. Some of us might even get religion in the search. Seeking to learn how the animals do it would be the typical way humans seems to want to make progress these days – looking for the new way, the latest fad, the ‘answer’ that will rescue us. Or we could just acknowledge the stupidity of how we humans currently behave, and focus on the interactions we have with each other as, in fact, mere animals. How much easier it is to simply focus on what WE do wrong. Humans make 3 mistakes that animals don’t:

• We rely solely on words, ignoring non verbal communications         
• We never say what we really mean         
• We break our agreements

Our habit when we want someone to do something is to use words, and if they seem resistant, we become like the typical Englishman abroad when faced with Johnny Foreigner  - we talk slower and louder. You see, our words have become all that we have to motivate others. We humans are fantastically skilled at reading body language, yet we ignore it most of the time. We humans ARE connected to each other (I’ll refrain from banging on about quantum mechanics here) and yet we are so cynical of anything ‘spiritual’ that we again ignore any ability we have to communicate through our very connection as human animals. But the problem is that when we rely on words, we invite resistance and procrastination from others through greater verbal gymnastics. Our love of debate, of dialogue and discourse has become a major block on meaningful action. How many meetings did you attend last year where the same issues were discussed again and again, with necessary actions ‘parked’ as no consensus could be reached? 

It would also help greatly if we were courageous enough to say what we really meant, but we have become so fearful in organisations of hurting people’s feelings or of being thought of as arrogant, that we pre-censor everything that we say. So we end up having conversations with people at work that are superficial and not honest - what Heideggar called ‘idle talk’. Organisational thinking of the last 20 years seems to have been preoccupied with creating cultures of harmony and consensus, but harmony is not a state that exists in nature, and Mr and Mrs Lion would laugh like hyenas at the notion of consensus on the issue of wilderbeest hunting and sheer survival.

Finally we have learned the survival method of saying yes, when we actually mean either ‘no’ or ‘maybe’. We so want to please others and look good, busy and helpful that we end up committing to things and then not being able to deliver on time, or even sometimes at all. And then we conspire with each other in a community to forgive each other for this, so that we can ALL be comfortable. You see if I let you off the hook, you have to do the same for me........

If ever there was a year to go back to basics, its 2009....If Mr and Mrs Lion could hold attention long enough and have even the merest sliver of consciousness, they would look up at us from their position as our evolutionary inferiors, and they would soon come to weep at our inadequacies and our stupidity. With so much at stake in 2009, why not set yourself the simple Challenge of adopting a new code of conduct in every meeting you attend:

• Listen and ask questions (learn) rather than talk (defend and justify)
• Be honest and direct – tell it how it is for you, and offer the meeting your honest views
• Commit only when you mean truly intend to carry it out, and honour every commitment you make.

Why don’t fish bump into each other? Because they are so much cleverer than us.