Last Updated on by Catherine Tobsing
When starting a business as well as running it, general practices dictate that you should have a business plan.
I have two problems with business plans.
The first is Murphy’s Law, which roughly states, “Anything that can go wrong, will.”
The second is my corollary to Murphy’s law, “Mr. Murphy is highly optimistic.”
All these titans of the digital world with their massive brain trusts and future architectures, all their planning meant nothing when Covid hit and when it left.
All their planning was for naught, it didn’t work because it could not take EVERYTHING into account.
For a couple of years, I mentored small business people at SCORE.
The organization had protocols for business start-ups and those businesses that needed a “course correction.”
Contrarian that I am and have always been, I teach just the opposite,
know how and what’s going to get you through tomorrow.
What does any of this have to do with birds, Mitch?
Let’s watch this video of the Goshawk flight in slo-mo, then we’ll come back to talk about it.
We as a company suffered a fire, and a flood, and then just a couple of weeks ago Square the credit card processor for Windy CityParrot.com went down, nationwide.
We’ve seen this before which is why I keep an inactive alternate credit card processor and PayPal Express plugin installed in Woocommerce.
Like the Goshawk I don’t focus on “how the 4th quarter is going to shape up.”
I need to get the Birdie Brunch ready for publishing despite Comcast “making the network better” by taking it FREAKING DOWN for hours when we’re trying to work.
And just like the Goshawk I adjust my path and stance, pivot to the next task, and move on.
That is looking at a person or bird through a singular perspective, so let’s talk about groups or in this case flocks and teams.
We take well-run organizations for granted.
How a car ever gets built in a car factory is beyond me.
That a 747 gets off the ground is a bit counterintuitive if you think about it considering its weight.
But let’s talk about teams that take things to the next level.
Think marching bands at halftime shows in football, what a beautiful show of synchronicity.
Then recall the last air and water show you viewed or attended.
The United States military and its experienced pilots are able to fly supersonic jets in tight formation albeit with years of training like you or I drive to the grocery store.
Now try to imagine a HUNDRED THOUSAND BAND MEMBERS on a HUGE LEVEL SURFACE or 10,000 jet aircraft flying in perfect formation.
With that much of ANYTHING, chaos surely will ensue.
Enter the starling, Starlings are medium-sized passerines. The shortest-bodied species is Kenrick’s starling, at 15 cm (6 in), but the lightest-weight species is Abbott’s starling, which is 34 g (1+1⁄4 oz). There are other species.
How is it these small creatures can communicate in real-time at speeds we can only dream of and fly in unison with such complex maneuvers is beyond at least my small mind something that can only be described as miraculous.
Watch this and explain to me how on God’s green earth, it happens.
Catherine and I were kicking some ideas around and the point we felt had the most weight was that birds have no other thoughts than “in the present.”
How I translate what they think ~
“I need to eat.” “Is that a hawk, fly now.” “I need to follow the scouts to the water.”
Not worried about their kid’s soccer practice, carpool, weekend plans, or that management meeting you present at tomorrow, would provide a lot of clarity, wouldn’t it?
Just sticking close to the next bird, nothing more nothing less, nothing else at all.
How would we feel if we had nothing else to worry about other than “sticking close to the next guy?”
The next time while driving you observe a small murmuration (we see a lot in rural Indiana) stop thinking about anything else and see where your mind goes.
Just remember you’re driving.
What have we learned?
We can interact with unlimited numbers of our peers, if we think of nothing else.
Written by Mitch Rezman
Approved by Catherine Tobsing
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