It's Shark Week, here's what that means for your company

The wildly successful week of shark overload is back on the Discovery Channel. And to watch a great white shark nicknamed Fred attack a smaller shark decoy off the coast of New Zealand was a sight to behold. Fred, a massive creature measuring 21 feet, is known amongst local fisherman as a particularly rude fellow with strong territorial behavior. 

While on a dive one morning, researchers were capturing data on modestly sized great white sharks when they noticed significant bite damage on smaller males. Male great white sharks bite females when mating but the scientists were struck by the degree of damage to the male population. They concluded the bites had to be the result of a much larger male shark protecting its turf.   

To prove their hypothesis, the team of scientists constructed a life-sized replica of a standard male great white and trailed it off their boat along with some culinary incentives. Not long after, a handful of great whites approached, each taking advantage of the chum-filled water and enjoying a snack or two but leaving the replica unscathed.

Then, as though an ocean vacuum was turned on, all the sharks suddenly and eerily disappeared. Several moments had passed when researchers sounded the alarm: a massive great white was approaching the boat. Fred decided to show up. Within minutes, Fred began investigating the decoy and he was none too pleased. After bumping it once or twice, Fred took a massive bite out of the head, what the scientists indicated would have been a fatal blow to a smaller great white encroaching on Fred’s territory.

In our upcoming book, we tell a similar story, only about a slightly smaller, less dangerous animal: chickens. And while it is unlikely that Discovery will launch Chicken Week any time soon, there are parallel lessons between the species, one that we can even apply at work.

When the sharks worked in unison, all were fed, and all were unscathed. Their teamwork proved to be an effective methodology to find success across their required tasks. When Fred arrived, however, the species overall was less successful. Yes, Fred was able to eat more, but at the expense of the group. And while Fred’s full stomach may be great in the short-term for him, all the other sharks around Fred suffered (and, not to mention, many were visibly wounded). This does not bode well for long-term flourishing.

Our individual success directly relates to the potential of our collective success. That’s because work usually requires us to put on our creative thinking caps and to innovate. We have all worked with a Fred-like character at the office; a shark with the mindset of kill or be killed. But hyper-aggressive and selfish behavior is hardly a way to get things done, and not surprisingly this type of behavior can decimate innovation. It’s a short-sighted approach with a short-lived pattern of success.

If you work as part of a team, remember the lessons of Shark Week: success at the office relies heavily on your social environment. In short, don’t be like Fred.

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Co-authored by David Brendel and Ryan Stelzer, Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans will be published by the Hachette Book Group under the PublicAffairs imprint on September 21, 2021. Now available for pre-order!