Studying of chickens for productivity? That’s easy! You measure them by number of eggs right?
Actually, there is a very interesting study to see what could make chickens more productive.

In group A you have few of your average chickens. And in group B the same number of your most-individually-productive chickens aka. the super chicken.

A few generations were watched and studied and this is what they found:
The average group did fine, and egg production had increased dramatically.

But what about the super chickens group? They all died! Super chickens (individually great chickens) only achieved great result by suppressing the productivity of the rest.

But is this relevant to people and organisations?
It seems that it is!
There are many super chicken organisation today in which individuals operate on a ‘competing with others’ model, and this might get them ahead of the game for some time but it doesn’t seem to be a sustainable approach if you want to keep growing and being better continually!
The result is aggression, dysfunction and waste.

And the long results if you are operating in this mode, apart from aggression, is you stop growing!
What happens if your rivals die or do not show up? You are going to stop? Who are you going to compete against? You may have limited your growth by others’ limitations.

So what makes us to perform well as team and as an organisation? It’s not higher aggregated IQ!

• Higher sensitivity toward each other. I’m reading a book on EQ – while your IQ remains pretty much the same as what you are born with, don’t lose hope! You can constantly increase your EQ and it’s a very important factor in performing well
• Having no dominant voice nor an idle passenger in the team: it’s very important for everyone to have a voice. Some people are introverts and may not express themselves. I recently learnt about a technique called constellation with ball to get feedback from all.
• Having more women: for 2 reasons: A. they bring a different perspective to solutions (given all the problems are created by men – JK). B. women generally have higher EQ which is kind of first point

What happens between people determines how ideas are generated, how they get going, how people brainstorm, and they (ideas) are welcomed and discussed

If you would like to watch the clip of the Super Chicken’s study click here.