Why is a Harvard teaching future leader to honk like geese?
On a perfectly normal day at Harvard a couple of weeks ago, a dozen future leaders of the world sat in a circle and cried: honk! honk! honk!
For an hour or so these 12 stopped being second-year masters students at the Kennedy School of Government. They became geese.
The transformation was intended to serve two purposes. First, it was meant to get them to bond as a team. Second, it was to teach them that human beings, even ones with the finest education and who will rule the world one day, can learn a lot from geese.
Each of the 12 was told to stand up in turn and read out a sentence about geese, while the others made noises.
“Fact! When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point,” said one.
“Honk! Honk! Honk!” went the 11 other future leaders, as instructed.
“Lesson!” shouted a second. “Each of us needs to take our turn in giving direction for the good of the group.”
“Honk! Honk! Honk!” was the refrain.
In the name of team-building, sensible people do some very silly things. Grown-up accountants go on courses to learn circus skills. Experienced managers scramble through freezing mud. They bake bread. They sing. They bang on African drums. It is all thoroughly baffling and embarrassing and will no doubt give anthropologists of the future a lot to puzzle over. In fact, it has all been so mad for so long that I’m no longer surprised at any new team-building course. If someone said they were doing open-heart surgery as a team-building exercise I wouldn’t turn a hair.
And yet the goose story at Harvard still manages to shock. It shows that a sharp brain and a huge amount of education are no protection against management stupidity. When America’s pre-eminent graduate school of politics starts honking it is time to admit that intelligence can no longer triumph over claptrap.
In this particular case there wasn’t even any need for bonding. These 12 had simply volunteered to be class advisers, which meant they were responsible for helping the new students settle in. (Which is a thoroughly good thing to do
