My inner coworking animal

I was reading Amy Sutherland’s excellent new book, What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage, when I came across a tiny passage — the precise details escape me now — in which she writes about animals working together cooperatively. With my Heightened Coworking Awareness Goggles on, I made a mental note to, just for fun, take a look at coworking out there in the wild world of nature.

I recalled a story I reported, years ago, about a raptor sanctuary near San Antonio where injured birds of prey are rehabilitated and set back into the wild. It was researching this piece that netted me the experience of hunting with some raptors — I believe they were hawks. This particular type of bird came from a line of group hunters. And so they were taught not only to catch their prey, but share it. I watched as the trainer joined them on the ground, picking at a rabbit, and cut the bunny into pieces to give the birds an idea about eating together, teaching them, in essence, the importance of coworking.

So I wrote Amy a note asking her if she could shed a little light on coworking among animals, explaining to her about LaunchPad Coworking. She responded promptly not only with observations about animals working together, but also the pitfalls of isolation, which I particularly liked. Here’s what she had to say:

Well the grouper and moray eel offer an example of cross-species cooperation. Lionesses, wolves and African wild dogs all hunt together, and a fair amount of strategy goes into those hunts. So do dolphins and whales (they all blow bubbles to push a bait ball of fish up the surface). [And then there are] bees in a hive, all making honey, telling each other where to find such and such flowers (they do this with a dance).

The thing that coworking speaks to for me, is that we are social animals, and working at home in isolation goes totally against that. Zoos do whatever they can to make sure a social animal is not in an enclosure by itself. Then here we go putting ourselves in isolation. God, that’s what they do to punish prisoners.

Thanks, Amy. I hope you’ll come cowork with us next time you’re in Austin for a book reading.