Margaret Heffernan: Why it's time to forget the pecking order at work

Organizations are often run according to "the superchicken model," where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn't what drives the most high-achieving teams. Business leader Margaret Heffernan observes that it is social cohesion - built every coffee break, every time one team member asks another for help - that leads over time to great results.

«Chickens live in groups, so first of all, he selected just an average flock, and he let it alone for six generations. But then he created a second group of the individually most productive chickens — you could call them superchickens — and he put them together in a superflock, and each generation, he selected only the most productive for breeding.

After six generations had passed, what did he find? Well, the first group, the average group, was doing just fine.

They were all plump and fully feathered and egg production had increased dramatically. What about the second group? Well, all but three were dead.

They’d pecked the rest to death. The individually productive chickens had only achieved their success by suppressing the productivity of the rest.»