I was watching a documentary on National Geographic the other day, about life in the Savannah. At one point the camera was focused on a caracal that hadn’t eaten for days, following repeated failed attempts at ambushing its prey. The caracal caught the smell of a carcass eaten by two jackals nearby. Thinking that they were but a small threat to it, it charged them, with the intent of stealing their food. After the initial surprise, the jackals returned. What you need to know about jackals is that they mate for life. When there are threatened, both members of the couple actively defend their territory and/or their partner. Because they mate for life, the older jackals are typically better fighters, since they learn their partner’s fighting style and can synchronize their defense better. And so, before it new it, the caracal found itself under constant attacks from all sides: When it turned its attention to one jackal, the other immediately struck from behind.
In the military, special forces units very rarely change their composition: The same people serve together in the same unit for as long as possible. If you watch videos from their training, be it SEALs, Commandos, Grom, VDV, OYK, whatever, their movement is like a choreography. These are people that are always outnumbered. Their effectiveness comes from the cohesion that spending a lot of time with the same people brings about.
Here in Cyprus, our football teams are often called to play against northern European opponents this time of year, for the qualifying rounds of European competitions. One of the most commonly encountered comments by sportscasters and coaches alike, is that our teams are at a disadvantage because northern European championships start earlier. This means that our opponents have already played quite a few games together and know each other well, when our own players barely remember each other’s names!
And then there is the world of business. A world where (some) companies believe that they can mix-n-match people with the same ease that addicts do with alcohol. Companies that instead of looking for consistency in their team structures, go for (what they think is) efficiency through flexibility, by having anyone that is available at any given time, work on any project that happens to be available at that instance.
Who said flexibility is a good thing?