I walked into a hot, crowded, room when I was 20 years old, to hear a consultant’s report on the new strategic plan. I wasn’t sure what to expect, except that it would be boring.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
He started talking about murmurations of starlings - you know, those massive flocks of birds that swarm through the sky, twisting and changing shape, but always moving as one unit?
He said there were computer models that could mimic that effect. If you started with a set of dots, bouncing around at random, you could make the dots to move like the starlings’ flight by imposing just three simple rules:
Don’t get closer than X to any other dot.
Don’t get further away than Y from at least one other dot.
Don’t run into any obstacles. (This one is more of a guess…it was 24 years ago; I can’t remember the third rule.)
He explained that organizations can work the same way. If we have very few rules, but they are simple, and everyone adheres to them, we can all move together towards a common goal. And we can do it while adapting to whatever circumstances might arise. And we can do it in whatever different contexts we might be part of.
He called the “rules” strategic priorities.
I had never heard anything more fascinating in my entire life.
I have been told - though I have no memory of this - that I asked so many questions that night, the group was stuck in that hot, stuffy room an hour longer than planned.
Turns out I’m a huge nerd when it comes to leadership theory!
Less than six weeks later, I was at camp, passing out a list of the organization’s strategic priorities to my five-person outdoor ed team. We spent an hour talking about how to shift our program to be more aligned with them.
And I’ve used that material with every team I’ve worked with since. Literally hundreds of teams have heard me talk about starlings!
But why am I writing about them today?
I’m launching The Leaders Circle this week. It’s a course I’ve designed to give leaders a way to access training, community, and coaching quickly and affordably. And I’m so excited about it! It’s six weeks where I’m going to teach you the tools that have made the most impact on my own leadership.
Things like understanding your purpose, setting strategic priorities, values-driven culture, developing people, making mistakes without losing credibility, learning from shared experience. All my favourite stuff.
And I’ve been second guessing myself when it comes to the material. Am I trying to squeeze in too much? Should the course be longer so people have more time to learn?
Maybe.
But this morning I was listening to someone talk about the last strategic plan their organization did, and the binder full of paper that’s taking up space in a filing cabinet because it was too complicated to ever be actionable.
And I was telling her about starlings…obviously.
I realized something: When you’re ready, you’re ready.
I took in that concept so deeply at 20 years old that it shaped everything I’ve done.
And my guess is that, if you’re reading this, you’re ready for that kind of experience.
Not everyone learns leadership theory when they’re 20. Most people get promoted because they’re excellent at their jobs, and then suddenly find that leadership requires an entirely different set of skills - skills they aren’t sure how to name or develop.
I can help with that.
The Leaders Circle starts Wednesday morning.
Will it feel like drinking from a firehose? Yeah.
Will it give you the tools you’ve been waiting for? Yes.
Will you start 2025 ready to lead in a whole new way? Absolutely.
You’re ready.
Don’t miss out.
Find all the information you need right here:
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