Rodent Operated Vehicles – Who needs driverless vehicles?

With food delivery services at an all-time high, I can only imagine the surprise on our faces if our next order-in delivery arrives in a vehicle driven by a rat!?

Animal rights activists have been silent on these developments so far, so we must assume that the rats are well treated and enjoy the same rights that a human driver of a vehicle would. From reports by the scientists, it seems that rats find driving quite relaxing.?

In the HR community, we now seemingly have to prepare to deal with ROVs (Rodent Operated Vehicles) as well as FOVs (Fish Operated Vehicles). Are we preparing to start adapting our HR Policies to this strange new world of work??

And we thought human dynamics were complicated.?

This study definitely gives new meaning to the term “rat race.” Before we start organising “flash-mobs” to protest ROVs, we must consider what a monumental task is to teach a rodent to drive. It's a complex task, and scientists used old-fashioned psychological behavioural training techniques. As an organisation, we are definitely going to revisit the training protocols and behavioural training techniques of the humans in our organisation. We can definitely learn from these studies.

What is telling about the study is that it was found that the complexity of the rat environment influences learning speed. The complexity of the rat environment, the quicker learning. I have written about our VUCA (Volatile Uncertain Complex Ambiguous) business environment and how an organisation can respond to these realities. If rodents can respond and succeed in complex environments, it inspires me to become an organisation that can respond faster to our VUCA world.

It would probably be remiss of me to neglect the impact this may have on our Wellness programmes. It seems we have to prepare our programmes to include Veterinary Professionals as well!

I speculated before whether Tesla may be investigating the viability of FOVs. ROVs now added to the mix may be a bigger market than we imagined. Could it be shown that early adopters corner the market?

Other scientific studies seem to indicate that goldfish have the cognitive ability to learn a complex task in an environment completely unlike the one they evolved in. And rodents seem to learn more quickly in complex environments. As a human, I am going to make sure that I sharpen my cognitive skills and my ability to do complex tasks. If I may soon compete with rodents and goldfish to be assigned complex workplace tasks, I want to be ready.

Notes:?

1.) I hope these articles about ROVs and FOVs are taken in the spirit they are written in – a light-hearted take on a serious subject, the newly emerging workplace.?

2.) There is some serious science behind these ROV / FOV studies, and we could learn from their underlying principles.