Case of the Bonsai Manager by R Gopalakrishnan

Author:R Gopalakrishnan [Penguin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788184750041
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2010-05-31T00:00:00+00:00

11

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

WHEN GROUPS ARE WISER

It is believed that the best way to secure the wisdom of groups is to bring managers together into a conference for a meeting of minds. No wonder company conferences, often in exotic locations, are big business.

The belief is true that individuals influence each other, share perspectives and knowledge, and collectively come up with the ‘best’ solutions through such group discussions. However, this process also has the disadvantage that the more persuasive ‘alpha-arguers’ in the group sway others to their viewpoint: thus there is a risk of losing out on the ‘average’ wisdom of the group. More importantly, the outlier views, the ones at the edge, get completely lost because group discussions tend to ridicule or ignore these.

When a qualitative solution to a company problem has to be evolved, this method works quite well. For example, what are the ways in which we can transfer good practices across the company? Sometimes, a quantitative or binary view is needed. For instance: we have done the analysis and the results are close, and we have to decide whether or not we should test-market this product. Here the collective intuition of the group may be sought. How does one extract this?

Animal group behaviour: The role of natural instinct

French film-maker Luc Jacquet has made a magnificent film called The March of the Penguins. It is a feature-length film depicting the extraordinary struggles and triumphs of the emperor penguin. For thirteen months, a full film crew set up camp in the Antarctic with no possibility of sea or air transportation. Such a film creates awe in the viewer because Nature always tells a great story.

Magellanic penguins spend 80 per cent of their time swimming. They are furious swimmers, and come out only to moult and to breed. Off the South American coast, they swim thousands of miles in line with their migratory habits.

A few years ago, the New York Times had a report on the behaviour of some captive penguins in the San Francisco zoo. Forty-six penguins had been kept in captivity in a 130 by 40 ft pool. Soon, all had learnt to lead the sedentary life that zoo enclosures enjoined. They had certainly lost their penchant for swimming furiously.

To join these sedentary penguins at the zoo, there came six new Magellanic penguins. Until then, these six had spent time at a theme park in Ohio and the Sea World at San Diego, where they were not so constrained by space. At the San Francisco zoo, they were confined in the same 130 by 40 ft pool.

Do you think the forty-six penguins influenced the six newcomers to become placid? Or did the six newcomers make the placid forty-six become active?

Within a couple of hours, the six newcomers did what came to them naturally—they began to swim around furiously. After a while, the original forty-six penguins threw off their lethargy and started to swim furiously. It was almost

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