Repeatability

77

3

Principle 2: Clear

Nonnegotiables

Have you ever watched a school of herring in the ocean change

direction in the blink of an eye, as if the entire group were a single

organism rather than thousands of individual fish? For instance,

herring under attack from puffins shift instantly into elaborate

layered schooling of different shapes for predator evasion with

names like hourglass, vacuole, and split. Imagine if your front-

line organization could react this rapidly and precisely.

Scientists have been studying self-organizing populations—

from ants to flocks of birds—that act in concert without missing

a beat to debate or coordinate. The result