IS YOUR ORGANIZATION CREATING A LIFT OR A DRAG?

The Forgotten Wisdom of Wild Geese Can Re-Energize Your Team

Powerful leadership lessons inspired by wild geese migration.

An All-Too-Familiar Drag

Take a moment and picture your organization. Is it soaring, or is it struggling just to stay airborne?

For many leaders, the day-to-day reality feels less like "soaring" and more like a relentless "grind." We see burnout in our best people, critical projects hampered by silos, and a nagging gap between our stated "vision" and the team's actual, disconnected efforts. We have brilliant individuals, but the collective whole often feels heavy, tired, and surprisingly slow.

We instinctively try to fix this by pushing harder from the front. We demand more, we optimize processes, we clarify the vision again—all in an effort to reduce the drag.

But what if the secret to flying further, faster, and more efficiently isn't about the individual at the front, but about the shape of the system itself?

For this, we can look to one of the most demanding events in the natural world: the migration of wild geese. It's not just a beautiful spectacle; it's a masterclass in high-stakes organizational dynamics.

"Leadership, like geese flying in formation, embraces the power of unity and synergy. It is in synchronized harmony that they rise above challenges, each contributing their strength to propel the whole forward. Embodying resilience and shared purpose, they remind us that great leaders uplift those around them, fostering a collective journey towards new horizons."

Lesson 1: The 'V' is a System, Not Just a Shape

When geese fly in a 'V' formation, they aren't just following the leader. They are creating a system.

Each goose, by flapping its wings, creates an "updraft" for the bird immediately following. This aerodynamic lift allows the entire flock to fly with approximately 71% greater range than if each bird flew alone.

This is a profound insight. The 'V' is a physical demonstration of systemic intelligence. The flock's success is not dependent on one "hero goose" flapping harder than everyone else. Success is an emergent property of the system itself. The system is designed so that the very act of participation makes the journey easier for everyone else.

From the Corporation to the System: In our organizations, we often focus on individual performance. We have individual KPIs, individual bonuses, and individual "hero" leaders. But how often do we ask: "Does the very act of working here make everyone's work easier?"

• A bad system creates drag. It's the bureaucracy, the silos, and the information-hoarding that force everyone to flap harder just to stay in the same place.

• A good system creates lift. It's the shared knowledge base, the psychological safety, and the seamless hand-offs that allow an average team to produce extraordinary results.

This is the essence of Peter Senge’s work in The Fifth Discipline. He argues that the most successful organizations are "learning organizations" that master "systems thinking." As he writes:

"Systems thinking is a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static 'snapshots.'"

The geese don't just see other geese; they see the flock as a single, dynamic whole. Lesson 2: Leadership is a Role, Not a Rank

The lead position in the 'V' is the most demanding. It bears the full force of the wind and has no bird in front to create an updraft. It is a position of maximum effort.

And so, the geese do something remarkable: they rotate.

When the lead goose tires, it doesn't quit. It doesn't get "promoted" to a corner office. It gracefully moves to the back of the formation, taking a less-taxing position, while another goose moves up to take "point."

This isn't just "servant leadership"; it's sustainable, distributed leadership. The geese understand a critical truth that many human leaders forget: leadership is a function, not an identity. It is a temporary and costly role that must be shared for the system to survive.

From the Corporation to the System:

In our corporate structures, leadership is often seen as a permanent identity, a prize to be won and defended. This "hero leader" model is a primary driver of executive burnout. It also creates a massive bottleneck and disengages the rest of the team, who are treated as permanent "followers."

Corporate Example: 

Consider a high-functioning Agile (Scrum) team. In a "sprint," the "lead" may change daily. On Monday, the senior developer might "take point" to solve a technical problem. On Tuesday, the UX designer might "lead" the team in a design critique. The Scrum Master's job isn't to be the "boss," but to facilitate these rotations and remove drag for whoever is at the front. This dynamic, rotational model builds resilience, cross-trains the team, and prevents any one person from becoming the single point of failure.

This model requires leaders to have the ego-strength to move from "front" to "back," to shift from directing to supporting and drafting off the efforts of others.

Lesson 3: The 'Honk' That Fuels the Front

This is perhaps the most misunderstood lesson from the geese. We often say the "honking" is just simple encouragement. But watch where the honking comes from: it comes from behind.

The geese in the back are honking to encourage the ones at the front, the ones doing the hardest work.

This is a complete inversion of our typical top-down communication model. The 'honk' is the team’s way of sending energy forward. It’s the data that tells the leader, "We're with you. The system is working. Keep going."

From the Corporation to the System: In many companies, communication is a one-way street: the leader gives the vision, the team executes. Feedback, if it happens at all, is often a private, top-down, "corrective" event.

The geese model a culture of vocal, real-time, bottom-up support. This "honk" is the sound of a team with high psychological safety. It's the freedom to speak up, to encourage, and to show support without fear.

Corporate Example:  Look at Pixar's "Braintrust." When a film is in trouble, the director doesn't get "notes from the top." Instead, they present their film to a group of peer directors and creatives. This group's job is not to fix the problem, but to "honk from behind"—to provide candid, constructive, and supportive feedback. The feedback is non-prescriptive, and its sole purpose is to help the director at the "point" succeed. It's a system designed for peer-to-peer support, not top-down judgment.

As emotional intelligence expert Daniel Goleman reminds us, leadership is not just about a P&L sheet; it's about managing the emotional climate.

"Great leaders move us. They ignite our passion and inspire the best in us. When we try to explain why they are so effective, we speak of strategy, vision, or powerful ideas. But the reality is much more primal: Great leadership works through the emotions."

The "honk" is pure, primal, emotional data that fuels the entire system.

Lesson 4: The Radical Covenant of Support

What happens when a goose gets sick, wounded, or is shot down?

The 'V' formation doesn't just continue on, seeing the fallen member as a "cost of doing business." Instead, two other geese break formation and follow the struggling goose down to the ground.

They stay with it, offering protection and support, until that goose either recovers or dies. Only then do they launch back into the air, flying alone or trying to catch up with another flock.

Think about the "cost" of this. The flock instantly loses three members—a significant blow to its efficiency and power. A "ruthlessly efficient" modern organization might call this a critical waste of resources.

But the geese know a deeper truth.

They operate under a radical covenant: no one gets left behind. The flock can only function—and individuals can only dare to take the exhausting "lead" position—because they have absolute, unshakable trust that if they falter, the system will not abandon them.

This short-term "inefficiency" is the very thing that buys the long-term trust and cohesion required to survive an impossible journey.

From the Corporation to the System: This is where Simon Sinek’s concept of the "Circle of Safety" comes to life. Sinek argues that the leader's job is to build a circle of trust so large that people inside feel safe from the dangers outside.

"When people feel safe and protected by the leadership in an organization, the natural reaction is to trust and cooperate."

Corporate Example:  During the 2008 financial crisis, manufacturing leader Barry-Wehmiller faced a steep drop in orders. The board's answer was layoffs. But CEO Bob Chapman refused, declaring, "We are not going to let go of our people." Instead, they developed a shared furlough program. Every employee, from the CEO down, took four weeks of unpaid leave. The "cost" was shared. The message was identical to the geese: We will all sacrifice a little so that no one has to sacrifice everything. We will not abandon you. The result was a level of loyalty and trust that no "perk" could ever buy.

This covenant is the ultimate "why" behind the flock's resilience.

Your Call to Action: Stop Flapping, Start Shaping

The geese are not flying in a 'V' because it's a nice shape. They are flying in a 'V' because it is the only way they can survive the journey.

For us, as leaders, the journey of relevance, innovation, and market leadership is no less demanding. The lessons from the geese are not a "nice-to-have" HR initiative; they are a "must-have" design principle for survival.

This week, stop focusing only on your own "flapping" and look at the shape of your system.

1. Find the Drag: Where in your team or organization does the system create more work? Where do silos, bureaucracy, or a lack of trust force your people to fly "alone"? Your first job is to identify and remove that drag.

2. Share the Point: Look at your "to-do" list. What critical task are you holding onto that you could pass to an emerging leader? Who can you invite to "take the lead" to build their strength and give you a rest?

3. Amplify the 'Honk': How can you, as a leader, explicitly encourage those "at the front"? More importantly, how can you create the psychological safety for your team to "honk" from behind—to offer you (and each other) real-time, vocal support?

4. Honor the Covenant: The next time a team member struggles, what will be your response? Will you see them as a "performance problem" to be managed? Or will you see it as a "covenant" to be honored, signaling to the entire flock that this is a safe place to be?

True leadership isn't about being the strongest goose. It's about being the architect of a system so intelligent, trusting, and resilient that it creates its own lift, shares its own burdens, and brings everyone home together.

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Leksana TH