“Every dispute has a history; we have been sending messages to them and they have been sending messages to us, even if only by silence or by a professed refusal to negotiate. Positions have been staked out. Proposals have been made and rejected. One thing we know for sure: if the conflict is continuing, whatever we have been saying and doing so far has not worked. It has not produced the result we want, or we would have turned our attention to other matters by now…”

– (Beyond Machiavelli – Roger Fisher, Elizabeth Kopelman & Andrea Kupfer Schnieder, Harvard University Press, 1994)

Fact No:1 As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift draft for the bird following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds a greater flying range than if one bird flew alone.

Lesson No:1: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and more easily because they are travelling on the strength of one another.

Fact No.2: Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.

Lesson No.2: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation and be willing to accept help when we need it and give help when it is needed.

Fact No.3: When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation, and another goose flies in the point position.

Lesson No.3: Geese instinctively share the task of leadership and do not resent the leader

Fact No.4: The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up in front to keep up their speed.

Lesson No.4: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging and not something else.

Fact No.5: When a goose gets sick, is wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to earth to help and protect it. They stay with their disabled companion until it is able to fly again or dies. They then launch out on their own or with another formation or catch up with the flock.

Lesson No.5: If we have as much sense as geese, we, too, will stand by one another in difficult times and help the one who has dropped out to regain his place in the formation.

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