Have you ever seen a starling flock move in murmuration? Murmuration is the phenomenon of starlings flying together in such a way that results in mesmerizing patterns dancing across the sky.
If you’ve ever tried to move in sync with a group of people, you know how difficult it is and how much practice it takes. Then how do starlings dance across the sky in these formations with no practice, and what can we, as facilitators, learn from Starlings to help groups flock together better?
In the 1930s, an ornithologist originally suggested starlings communicated through telepathy. It reminds me of what Arthur C. Clarke said: “Magic's just science that we don't understand yet.”
It wasn't until 2015, when a physicist published their study on murmuration and showed us that the unique starling flock patterns have a lot more to do with physics than telepathy. When I read about this, I immediately intuited what that could mean for my own facilitative practice:
Not every change of direction happens from communication. In physics, this is a critical transition, where one change pushes something toward its tipping point resulting in another change. It’s a physical reaction that does not rely on something as strenuous as communication. It’s more instinctual; we humans are preparing our brains for future moments all the time. That means the physical tools we use to facilitate can be cues that prime participants to connect and imagine. The materials we use can be just as important as the content and sequence of events we design!
There is a magic number in groups. This magic number is the maximum number of people that one person (or starling) can pay attention to at any given moment. There are lots of wonderful studies out there about this—I’m gearing up for a deep dive on this one, but studies generally converge on 5 for an optimal small group, with 15 as an optimal unit of action. We can play with these concepts to structure our events to increase participation that arcs toward the right balance of consensus and meaningful dissent. Think of yourself as enabling a murmuration!
Humans only flock when they trust. The phrase above—the right balance of consensus and meaningful dissent—is key. I’ve noticed more since the pandemic and the rise of hybrid workspaces that it’s taking groups 2-3 times longer to find consensus. Humans require the time it takes to work through the different values and interpretations of reality in a room. That means building trust. As Autumn Brown, a favorite facilitation expert, says in her essay, “Consensus Reflection,” “Know that you cannot meaningfully agree until you have meaningfully disagreed, and that disagreement requires honest assessment of ourselves and our conditions.” Starlings don’t need to do that, but we humans sure do!
I talk a lot about starlings, neuroscience, ecosystems, fractals—or, more practically, what it means for improving collaboration, in my ToP Facilitations Methods training courses.
P.S. “Consensus Reflection” was published in adrienne marie brown’s book “Holding Change” which I also recommend.
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