Lucy? 3.2 Million years ago. The Neolithic, ~ -13000 years before Jimmy Page (and thus ~ -11000 BC), this is the era when humans became farmers, and thus sedentary. Before that they were nomadic, in tribes, in clans, in hordes in the Savanna.

so: (11000/3200000)*100 = 0.34%, 0.34 percent of our time in sedentary society. Roughly, if we make an analogy with a 24-hour day, not even 5 minutes in sedentary society.

And they would have us believe that our reactions, our expectations, our instincts, what our body demands, our mind, are in line with this modern world? It’s toward this modern world that we’re heading. But we carry a whole history that is 99% populated by a different life.

I thus base many of my reflections on group dynamics, communication, project success, on this horde in the Savanna. I don’t take it as an example, careful, but I think that this is what we are, and therefore we shouldn’t take for granted many things about the modern world. I use this horde to validate or invalidate certain intuitions, certain instincts. The horde is at the source of all our ideas, all our reactions, all our mechanisms.

The gut

The best indicator in the world to date (in my view): the gut. How does the gut work? With all of human history buried in our DNA. Is it good for my survival, is it good for the survival of my horde?

for example

I had a discussion about the horde during a meal at agile games fr 2013, so let’s use games. Games are very good for my survival. They teach me in a protected environment the interactions of outside life, the dynamics, strengths, weaknesses present, they teach me responses I wouldn’t have thought of. Did the horde play? probably. And for the same purpose.

Should I mention visual management? Cave paintings? Message alignment, recognition, we don’t know what these paintings were for, but they served a purpose.

Warning

Be careful not to fall into caricature. We imagine that the horde abandons its weakest members. And we let ourselves think that we could consider it natural to abandon the weakest members of a team, of an organization, certainly not! The horde is not savage (Mr. Peckinpah).

First of all, we are humans and thus we are different from many animals: now it’s not the rule of the strongest, the human horde understood very quickly that to survive it needed many different profiles (Alexis can you pass me your reference on the marathon, unique to humans, which would illustrate this example). Let’s not fall into the cruelty of the animal kingdom by default.

Then, secondly, just because I refer to the horde of the Savanna doesn’t mean I forbid myself any progress. On the contrary, we’re heading toward this modern civilized world. The reference to the Horde helps me explain certain behaviors, not necessarily justify them.

Small exercise in hordic gutology

Mixed teams or silos?

Gut echo: full volume for diversity.

The history of the horde demonstrates the value of diversity.

Natural leadership?

Gut echo: full volume

Yes we the horde we need natural leaders in many domains to survive. It’s by doing that a member of the horde will reveal themselves as a leader in a domain. The rest of the horde will be ready to follow them in this domain. They may discover over time that their leadership is waning or that another leader in the domain has appeared more competent.

Sociocracy?

Gut echo: zero points

Reason: incomprehensible word (I think), repackaging of concepts more obvious, better expressed elsewhere (I think). Is it good for the survival of my horde: no echo. Why would a paleolithic horde need sociocracy? On the other hand it’s obvious that the horde needs to let all the aspirations and characteristics of its group express themselves. All riches are good for accomplishing the horde’s vision: its survival. Command & control can be tolerated by the horde if it serves its vision: its survival (not if it serves only the interests of some).

But careful I return to my warnings. We shouldn’t be dictated by the behavior of the horde. We should just remember that in my opinion it’s at the source of all our ideas, all our reactions, all our mechanisms. And that civilization is the journey. So (even if you’ve understood I have a block with sociocracy as it’s currently presented but probably not with certain underlying ideas) just because the gut doesn’t respond doesn’t mean it’s not the target. On the other hand, it indicates that the effort and difficulties will be significant (myself to convince myself, to civilize myself?). Going completely against the spirit of the horde seems impossible to me.

To propose your feedback on hordic gutology: this contact form.

Workshop of hordic metaphors

  • You can go where you want during the day, finish the evening in a cave for shelter. (Do iterations if you want, but deliver finished things).
  • If you don’t cook your meat you’ll spend all your time eating it. (Good code and tests will spare you tedious and endless corrections)
  • If you kill and eat all the members of the opposing tribe winter will be long. (The mixing of people and profiles brings wealth and prosperity).
  • A well-sharpened flint is worth two. (a good expert is sometimes worth more than two interns).
  • Thanks to fire and hunting we lose our hair. (if you have fire and animal skins hair becomes useless: value).

To propose your hordic metaphors: this contact form.

Do I use it as a vehicle to convince myself? I don’t know, it doesn’t matter, but I’d also like to have fun rewriting the history of humanity (nothing less) by explaining why the Cro-Magnons, by following bad organizations brought their lineage to extinction; unlike homo-sapiens (called homo-agilus).

feedback

  • @pntbr points me to this pdf concerning an analysis of the famous “Why I Ate My Father”.
  • an article and a dossier that I’m discovering: very close to the reasoning held here.

feedback on the feedback

I appreciate Claude’s comments. But concerning certain points it seems to me that we didn’t understand each other. In my imagination the paleolithic horde doesn’t have one but several leaders, each in their domains. He evokes however I believe Totem & Taboo by Freud (great novel, his best, and yes in this book the horde has only one single master). In my imagination the horde is entirely scrumesque but I don’t know if that’s the question. The question is: what are we, and why do we behave this way. Finally, echoing Claude’s article, the tension he mentions I observe rather between the PO and the team. A topic for discussion in our country walks at Agile Open Sud (it’s full! well let’s be precise, there’s 1 spot left).