Perhaps you are among the fortunate who have witnessed a murmuration—the display of synchrony produced by a starling flock in flight. Murmurations occur when hundreds or thousands of birds fly together in swooping movement patterns. Here, no single bird leads the flock. Instead, murmurations evolve in response to the actions of individual birds and the interactions between them. Hence, understanding the behavior or movement of one bird will not convey a perfect understanding of the whole. Murmurations have become a favorite metaphor within systems practice because they beautifully illustrate a complex adaptive system in action. 

Murmurations also represent our belief in collective leadership. Collective leadership is distributed, inclusive and recognizes the truth in multiple perspectives. It relies on continuous, effective, and multi-directional communication, enables adaptation in rapidly changing contexts, and harnesses our collective intelligence as we reimagine what’s possible for today—and for the future.