Sharing Ownership of the Vision

A brilliant book, Flight of the Buffalo, vividly portrays this principle. It compares the mentality of buffalo and geese. Buffalo do exactly what the head buffalo tells them. Committed to one leader, buffalo stand around motionless until the chief shows them what to do. When the leader is not around they wait for him to show up. Early settlers in America decimated entire buffalo herds by killing the lead buffalo, leaving the rest without direction and, therefore, easy prey.

When we have a mentality of single ownership, people are not decisive and action-oriented. Instead they are waiting for the next set of instructions and rules to come down from the top.

In contrast, when geese fly in their “V” formation, the leader changes frequently. Different geese, at different times, initiate the lead. Each goose is responsible for getting the group where it needs to go. It changes its function or role whenever it is necessary, alternating between leading and following, following and leading. When the tasks change, the geese are responsible for changing the structure.

This is a living illustration of the principle of shared leadership. It works.

John Maxwell in Developing the Leaders Around You mentions more about geese:

When you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in a “V” formation, you might be interested in knowing that science has discovered why they fly that way. Research has revealed that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately behind it. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go it alone. It quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front. When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back in the “V” and another goose flies the point. The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. And finally, when a goose gets sick or is wounded by gunfire and falls out, two other geese fall out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. They stay with the goose until it is either able to fly again or is dead, and then they launch out on their own or with another formation to catch up with their group.

Whoever was the first to call another person a ‘silly goose’ didn’t know enough about geese.

There’s a lot to learn from geese:

• People who have a common direction and sense of community get where they are going more quickly and easily because they are travelling on one another’s slip stream.
• If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation, and so will those who are headed the same way we are.
• It pays to take turns doing hard jobs.
• When you honk from behind, make sure it’s encouraging.
• If we have the sense of goose, we will stand by each other as they do.