The
United Kingdom has had a longstanding milk distribution system. Milkmen in
small trucks bring the milk in bottles to each country house. Early in the 20th century, these bottles had
no top, giving birds easy access to the cream on top.
The
titmice and the robins capitalized most on this opportunity, quickly learning
to siphon off the cream from the bottles.
In
the 1940’s dairies began to install aluminum seals on milk bottles, effectively
preventing the birds from gaining access.
This
worked for a while but one by one, the titmice learned to pierce the tops and before
long, the entire titmouse population was only mildly inconvenienced by the
aluminum caps.
Other
than an occasional few, the robins as a species never learned how to get around
the bottle cap and were foiled (no pun intended) from getting at the milky
cream.
Why?
After all, robins and titmice are similar in size and physical characteristics.
The difference was in how the birds interacted within their own species.
Robins
are individualistic, self-serving and territorial birds. Rather than cooperate,
they chase each other off when approached.
Titmice,
on the other hand, are communal birds, relying heavily on other titmice for
survival. Through this mutual dependency, they cooperate and collaborate,
quickly learning from each other and adapting accordingly.
In
short, the titmice won the battle against the aluminum caps because they
learned from one another, while the self-serving robins, unwilling to share
information, found themselves denied access to the sweet cream.
The
lesson here is simple: Birds that flock, like titmice, learn faster, evolve
more quickly, and increase their chances of survival. This is true for you as
well. When you interact with others, you
learn – new information, new techniques, and new ways of helping others
succeed.
So,
in short, build a network of titmice, not robins.
