Growing up I lived across the road from market garden land that was unremarkable for most of the year but on autumn evenings it was witness to something truly memorable.
The land rose gently away from my childhood home with tall trees on its periphery creating a natural amphitheatre in which thousands of starlings gathered to perform aerial stunts.
When the birds were further away, the murmurations looked as if someone had tossed iron filings across the sky. If the starlings swooped nearer to my window the intricate movements were clearer to see – as if thousands of Red Arrows were putting on a private aerobatic show.
Researchers from the University of Gloucestershire believe that murmurations occur as a defence mechanism. While findings from the University of Groningen show how starling flocks sense a threat - such as from a falcon - and then adapt to move away from the danger.
It has also been suggested that starlings – who are highly intelligent birds – group together in these murmurations for fun. This could explain why they spend up to 90 minutes swooping around in the absence of predators instead of just going to sleep.
It is how these murmurations happen though which is of real interest. A study by the University of Rome found this is possible because of starlings’ relentless attention to a small set of signals – each starling tracks the six or seven birds closest to it, sending and receiving cues of direction, speed, acceleration and distance.
This creates the right circumstance for collective decision making to form in a way that is so agile a signal to turn, begun by a bird on the outside of the flock, can be communicated through a flock of potentially thousands of birds in about half a second – or a speed of 90 miles per hour.
Now think about your workplace, team or organisation. Then think about your culture and challenge yourself with these questions:
· What form does your collective decision-making take – and how agile is this process?
· How much attention do you give to those closest to you?
· Are there lots of opportunities created to allow you and others to really get to know each other and understand how each other work?
· How do you keep in touch with the half dozen most important people crucial to you doing a good job?
· Do you know how others will react to fast-moving situations – particularly when dealing with a rapidly evolving crisis?
Then, think back to pre-pandemic days, how has the move to increased remote working altered your answers to these questions and affected the culture of your workplace, team or organisation?
Research from Gallup shows that nearly 60 per cent of workers prefer hybrid working and that this boosts employees mental health and retention rates. But as historic research demonstrates we get far less fulfilment in connecting with others remotely than we do when physically present with shared understanding likely to suffer.
By consistently working together across teams and functions on a task, a project or to solve a very specific problem, a genuine ‘team of teams’ culture can be built. Over time trust builds and what General Stanley McChrystal describes in his book ‘Team of Teams’ as “connective tissue” will grow stronger.
Just like the starling murmurations, strong cultures are built on a feeling of deep connection, consistency in communication and shared community that every individual is invested in.
Connection. A sense of belonging is a powerful force for good in any organisation. It is based on chemistry between people that is frequently rooted in laughter and fun. How you carefully curate key moments – particularly meetings – will have an enormous impact on the quality and depth of connections made. As will how your physical workplace is designed. Moving in synchrony makes people feel connected socially and emotionally but is difficult to do when working on something together while apart. Plan how to break down barriers so employees can pick up even subtle signals from others.
Consistency. Humans are social animals that crave a level of connection that cannot be realised via video calls, e-mails or instant messages. Is it a case that you’ve confused constant, shallow connection with deep, meaningful connections?
Community. Most of us want to live as part of a thriving, strong community that we feel invested in and are proud to help nurture for the future – why can this also not be true of where we work? Great communities are built by people for people through multi-layered connections that help the broader organisation as well as the individual. How can your individual actions help others to leave a positive legacy in your workplace, team or business?
Strong cultures – like a murmuration of starlings - are full of individuals that are focussed on what is going on around them to create the right circumstance for good things to happen.
As the group shifts, changes and refreshes they mitigate risk but also can create something stunning that is rewarding for all - and even fun to be a part of.