Improved Management Using The Serengeti Rules
A good way to improve creativity is to interact with those from outside your own field. This includes reading and exposure to seemingly unrelated topics, looking for inspiration to connect them to your work.
In two previous LinkedIn posts, I tied interpretations of Sun Tzu's The Art of War to management. Since his book focuses quite a bit on strategy, some may not find that to be an overreach. It had also been done before.
But how about the structure of the ecological environment? How might knowledge of that be beneficial in organizational pursuits? Let’s consider the structure of the natural world of plants and animals by looking at some of the concepts from The Serengeti Rules by Dr. Sean B. Carroll. PBS also has an outstanding one hour program on The Serengeti Rules that features clear explanations and outstanding and memorable examples of what “keystones” are and how reliant on them ecosystems are.
In the interest of efficiency, I’ve listed some of the concepts below (most of the headings are mine), not always in consecutive order, nor with specific reference to particular scientists who were involved in the ecological research mentioned by the author. What’s below just touches on the myriad insights available to organizations who are willing to mine this truly valuable resource of scientific discovery:
Regulation
The most critical thing we have learned about human life at the molecular level is that everything is regulated. Diseases, it turns out, are mostly abnormalities of regulation, where too little or too much of something is made. There are molecular rules that regulate the numbers of different kinds of molecules and cells in the body and there are ecological rules that regulate the numbers and kinds of animals and plants in a given place. I will call these the “Serengeti Rules” because that is one place where they have been well documented. (The Serengeti is Tanzania's oldest and most popular national park, also a United Nations World Heritage Site, recently proclaimed a seventh wonder of the world. It is a vast ecosystem of almost 10,000 square miles and is the location of one of?the last remaining mass animal migrations on land.)
Just as human health suffers when the level of some critical component gets too low or too high, we now understand from the Serengeti Rules how and why entire ecosystems can "get sick” when the populations of certain members are too low or too high.
We might add organizations as ecosystems too. They can get sick when certain factors get out of balance. There might be too many managers, or nor enough of them. If an organization gets too large, it may need to be divided and made smaller to make it more creative, more agile, or more manageable. If an organization is too small, it might not have the diversity of talent to be competitive in today’s global marketplace, or to properly manage itself because it lacks requisite specialized knowledge. Of course, such knowledge can be purchased by hiring needed talents, or by effectively renting it? from outside providers. The question of bringing the ecosystem back into balance becomes one of who, how much and when.
What Are The Big Threats?
Wouldn’t it be terribly ironic if, while we race toward discovering more cures for the problems of human life, that we are ignoring the greater threat regarding how life works on the larger scale? No doubt most passengers on the Titanic were more concerned about the dinner menu than the speed and latitude at which they were steaming?
As was the case with the Titanic, unobserved dangers can lurk below the surface. There can be so much emphasis on getting the job done day to day, and focusing on this quarter’s or this semester’s results, that the broader and longer view doesn’t get the attention it should. What might things like this be? Key people could leave the organization, leaving it unprepared because no redundancy was created? Competition from unexpected products and services could make yours less desirable or even unwanted?
Are you envisioning such threats, or just proceeding merrily along, like some travel agencies and insurance agents were prior to the advent of the internet, believing that nothing would ever change their business, or like local real estate agencies who always thought of themselves as “locally focused businesses” who weren't vulnerable to the consolidation that affected banking, for example. That is until a new paradigm came on the scene with real estate franchises like Century 21 and others? What once seemed impossible, and unforeseen, put people out of jobs and businesses out of business. It has also put colleges out of business or has put them on the ropes. Planning might well speculate on what these kinds of threats could be for your organization.
Serengeti Rules
The regulation of populations must be known before we can understand nature and predict its behavior. The Great Serengeti. It is home to an astounding number of different kinds of animals – over seventy species of mammals, more than five hundred species of birds, and even one hundred different kinds of dung beetles. What rules regulate the numbers of such different creatures?
The ecological community generally accepted that each level limited the next higher level, that is, populations were positively regulated from the bottom up: decomposers (fungi and worms), producers (plants and algae), herbivores (plant eaters), and carnivores (meat eaters). New research showed that impacts of some species on others can have a far broader impact:
Starfish Research
A researcher removed all the starfish from a twenty foot by six foot stretch of rock. On an adjacent stretch, he let nature take its course. The results showed that one predator, the starfish, could control the composition of species in a community, affecting both animals it ate, as well as animals and plants that it did not eat.
The biggest role of the starfish was to keep the mussels in check. Without the starfish, the mussels took over and forced other species out. The predatory starfish were “keystones” or keystone species. Just as a keystone at the top of an arch is necessary for the stability of a structure, these apex predators at the top of the food web are critical to the diversity of an ecosystem. Dislodge them and the community falls apart. This prompted research into other communities for keystone species.
What are the ‘keystone species’ in your organization?” Who are the key people? What are the key products or what are your key service offerings? What is your core business and what might be better being outsourced? How can you alter the organization for the better by changing or removing the keystones? Peter Drucker often pointed to the fact that many companies' resources were wasted on products or services that made little difference to the overall profitability, health and growth of the organization, but took a lot of management’s time. It’s an analysis all organizations should make.
Sea Otters and Urchins Research
Otters love to eat urchins. What effect did urchins have on algal diversity? Where there were large urchin populations, there was very little algae. They ate it. When they removed sea urchins from an area, algae burst forth.
In another region, researchers found that the presence of otters reduced the urchin population, which otherwise suppressed the growth of kelp, so otters “induce” the growth of kelp by repressing the sea urchin population, and otters have an effect on multiple levels below them. These types of “trophic cascades” have been discovered in all sorts of habitats. What trophic cascades in the organizational world might have similar scenarios?
Keystones
Not all species are equal. Not all predators are keystones, and not all keystones are predators. Nor do all ecosystems necessarily have keystones. Some species mediate strong indirect effects through trophic cascades. I think most organizations, however, would be likely to have keystones and trophic cascades that should be identified. (In an interesting sidelight, Charles Duhigg in his fascinating book The Power of Habit describes how it is critical to recognize “keystone habits” that can help us make or break a habit.)
Unexpected Consequences
A vaccination program was begun in East Africa targeted to eliminating the deadly rinderpest virus in domesticated cattle, but it also had the added side effect of eliminating it in wild animals too. The virus, that had previously suppressed the number of cattle ?having been eliminated, caused the wildebeest population to increase from a few hundred thousand to 1.4 million in The Serengeti. Both the presence and absence of rinderpest were demonstrated to act as keystones. Their introduction, or their elimination, had cascading effects through ecosystems, as shown below:
Wildebeest are a keystone species. Without them, there would be no Serengeti.
Competition
Some species compete for common resources. Species that compete for space, food or habitat can regulate the abundance of other species. (This certainly applies to businesses and non profits too.)
Predation rates depend on prey body size. Smaller antelope largely die from, and are regulated by, predation. Larger mammals such as giraffes, hippos and elephants experience little or no predation: their populations are regulated by food supply.
This also applies to small businesses and larger ones, as well as contrasting the advantages of organizational size to organizational agility.?The lower one is on the organization chart, or in a competitive environment, the more threats he, she or it faces too – just like the animals.
Migration: How To Eat More Without Getting Eaten
Besides body size, what else distinguishes species? One stays put, the other doesn’t. There are two kind of wildebeests on the Serengeti: the vast migratory herds, and smaller “resident populations” that remain year round in parts of the system near water supplies. Predation on those resident populations account for 87% of wildebeest deaths, whereas predation on the migrants accounts for only about one-fourth of the migrant deaths. Moreover, only about 1% of the migrants are taken in a given year, while up to 10% of the residents might be killed. (Predators can’t follow the herds because they are confined to territories to raise and protect their own young.)
So, as in organizations, it’s beneficial to keep on the move, rather than standing still. It’s easier to defeat a stationary target than a moving one. It's analogous to the flexibility of online sellers contrasted to brick and mortar ones. It can often be better to make yourself more accessible than trying to encourage, or depend upon, the customer to physically come to you. Also, a broader market reach can be achieved when organizations reach out their tentacles into a region rather than being restricted to those in the immediate market area who can dry up, periodically or permanently.
I operated a state approved real estate school in New Jersey for 20 years. When I started in 1977, other schools had been in business quite a while. They had fixed locations. Students had to come to them. I decided to operate as part of evening adult school programs. I made myself more convenient and eliminated the necessity for students to drive longer distances. I’d like to tell you that it was a prescient, strategic decision on my part, but it was more one of necessity. I couldn’t afford a fixed location, so I went where I could find facilities convenient to the areas I served, at a very reasonable expense and with little overhead. Only after the fact did I realize that it gave me a competitive advantage. I combined that with a lower price and a high state test pass rate. It also made me a moving target so to speak, not easy to compete with when my competitors operated from a few fixed locations. One of the Serengeti Rules says: Migration increases animal numbers by increasing access to food (my new students) and decreasing susceptibility to predation? – I was far less subject to defeat from larger schools by being a moving and multiple target.
Pope Francis and Ecology
The author cites Pope Francis’ encyclical “On Care for Our Common Home”:
“We need only take a frank look at the facts to see that our common home is falling into serious disrepair.”
What is the status of your organizational home? In fact, don’t all organizations meet the definition of being ready for “reengineering”:
How do you do your work? Before asking how your work can be improved, the first question should be: Should the work even be done in the first place? And if it does need to be done, how can it be reorganized to generate more efficient results?
Dealing With Smallpox
In 1956, the smallpox virus was still affecting as many as ten million people, and killing two million people per year. Bill Foege, a Lutheran missionary doctor working in Nigeria for what is now the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) came up with a strategy to deal with the problem other than mass inoculation, which was impractical.
He thought about the “ecology” of the disease, how the disease spread from person to person and when people were most likely to infect others. He decided he should focus only on vaccinating those people in places where infections were ongoing. He also identified three places where the patients might have traveled. They created a “ring of vaccination” around the infected people, trying to stop the virus from spreading beyond the ring. As a young firefighter with the US Forest Service, Foege learned that to stop a fire from spreading, remove the fuel ahead of it. Ring vaccination removed the fuel ahead of the virus. Even though just 15% of the population had been vaccinated, within six weeks, the outbreak had been stymied, and no further cases occurred.
In organizations, targeted approaches with proper intelligence, might produce the same beneficial results rather than engaging in a full-blown, and more costly, offense or defense. The same approach might also work in rumor control, using a surgical policy to deal with the problem, instead of a universal approach.
The very question of "contagion", which typically has a highly negative connotation, might also be looked at in a positive way. How can an organization spread its "good contagion" to generate more business, leads, contributors, students, etc.?
House on Fire
All organizations have “house fires” from time to time. If there was ever a truism in management, it’s that managers often complain that they can spend a large part of their day “fighting fires”. Foege’s book House on Fire offered eighteen lessons he thought were applicable to other public health projects. A few I’ve mentioned here might be good for organizations too in helping to head off problems at the pass:
Coalitions are powerful
Turf battles and competition among individuals, teams and organizations (public and private) competing for resources, for power, or for credit must be suppressed by an unwavering focus on the common goal. This could easily apply to line-staff issues, department v. department problems, seeking recognition, etc.
The objective may be global, but implementation is always local
Local cultures and needs determined which tactics were most useful in the smallpox campaign. While the objective may be the same organization wide, the manner in which the objective is achieved might more often be left to local, autonomous control, rather than having everyone follow a centralized dictate. That can result in improved staff development down through the organization and also lead to more creative solutions. A video I saw a long time ago said that top management should make it clear that they recognize that they aren’t “the wellspring of all ideas”. Far more creative solutions can come from giving employees the slack to develop creative solution to problems. When’s the last time you encouraged this in your organization or when is the last time you were given the flexibility to develop your own solutions? General George Patton recognized this long ago: “Tell people what you want them to do, but don’t tell them how to do it, and they’ll amaze you with their ingenuity.”
Solutions rest on good science, but implementation depends on good management
Even in non-scientific organizations, "good science" could equate to good research, and good technical or factual knowledge. Even if that can be properly discerned, it takes good management to lay out the proper objectives consistent with it, that can be adequately measured and time bounded with strategies and tactics that will make it happen