JUST IMAGINE, WHAT BIRDS CAN TEACH US ABOUT MARSHALLING COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE WITHIN AN ORGANISATION?

Following an intellectual cue from Dilip Mukerjea, especially on account of his attendance at a fascinating talk by business strategist Don Tapscott this afternoon at the Singapore Institute of Management, I went into cyberspace to seek a video clip on the elegant swarm-level, self-organising behaviours of starlings in flight.

I found it, with the aid of my Copernic Agent Pro, as follows:


What a spectacular panoramic display of nature's beauty!

With a little bit of digging through cyberspace, I got to understand the phenomenon:

All evidence from the bird-flocking suggests:

- no central control;

- emergent phenomena;

- self-organising;

- only simple but powerful rules, as follows:

Rule #1: Collision Avoidance ~

Each starling basically avoids collision with its immediate neighbours!

Rule #2: Velocity Matching ~

Each starling stays close to & matches the velocity of its immediate neighbours!

Rule #3: Block Alignment ~

Each starling gauges where the immediate neighbours are flying & then aligns itself with the group's direction!

Gee Whiz! I am totally stunned by the foregoing findings.

Hey, to all the BOSSES out there!

Do you think you can marshall all the people - ergo, collective intelligence - in your entire organisation to move in the same way as the starlings in flight?