Jean-Marie:
My favorite is the standard ducks in a Vee formation. However, add a
couple of twists.
The first is, while the leader is doing the work of steering the
formation, the other ducks only see her tail feathers and do not
necessarily know where the team is going. The teamwork is involved in
keeping the formation intact and minimixing difficulty for the other
ducks.
The other twist is these are wild ducks. If Farmer Brown decides to feed
the ducks when they lite on his pond, then the ducks remember this
(Thorndke's Law of Effect).
Then the diucks remember and return to the feeding site both trips (one
south the other north). The ducks begin to be tamed and stay through the
winter rather than leave. Year after year the ducks multiply and the baby
ducks learn a tame lifestyle. The dependency that is created worsens when
you look at the once pristain pond to see lots of duck feathers and duck
feces. The farmer, in the mean time is spending more and more time and
money on feeding the ducks.
Moral? Let the lead duck lead. The lead duck will find food, water, and
a safe place. If we intervene (as trainer s or HRD) then we may be taming
our wild ducks, when the ducks should remain somewhat autonomous and wild.
-- Jesse White Applied Performance Fayetteville, AR "Jesse W. White" <jwhite@comp.uark.edu>