Lessons on Teamwork

Some of the best lessons come from unexpected places. One of the best lessons you can ever find about teamwork comes from geese. When they fly to a warmer climate during winter months they work together:

1. They take turns flying point. When they travel in their famous V-formation the leaders take turns. In doing this they save their energy and everyone has the opportunity to share the hardest job.

2. They uplift one another. By flying in the V-formation every bird creates an extra lift for the bird behind them. Experts have concluded that they get 70% extra help from this formation, because it is easier to fly behind another bird.

3. They help the sick and wounded. Most people don't know this, but when a goose is sick or wounded and is forced to go to the ground, at least two other geese will go to the ground to help. These helping geese will stay with the troubled bird until it is able to fly again.

4. The honkers fly in the back. Maybe you have been on a lake before and you have heard the geese honk as they fly over your head. Where is the honking coming from? It comes from the geese that follow behind. Why? Perhaps it is to say to the geese working hardest in the front that everything is fine in the back. Perhaps it is for encouragement. Perhaps it is a honk of appreciation for the work of the leadership.

What a great lesson to learn from God's creation! By nature we should also help each other. So:
1. Take you turn at the helm and relinquish it at the proper time. 2. Realize that the work you do is helping the work of others. 3. Never forget to help those who need help the most. 4. Always encourage those who lead and sacrifice for others.

"...from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Ephesians 4:16

Special thanks to Chuck Swindoll for the research done on geese that inspired this article...