Seven Habits of Highly Effective Dolphins

This past week, while preparing for my "Hope for the Home" series of messages, I ran into an unusual copycat: Seven Habits of Highly Effective Dolphins. In this article, Ken Thompson, describes the social behavior of one of the earth's most intelligent creatures as a source of insight for a new form of teamwork and collaboration that he labels "bioteaming." Thompson writes, "Even on a cursory examination it is clear that dolphins embody many of the principles of bioteams:

1. Living in close knit groups (strong ties and bonding social capital). Bottle-nose dolphins live in groups called pods. A pod is a coherent long-term social unit.

2. Operating in larger communities (weak ties and bridging social capital). Though dolphins live in small pods, these pods can be quite fluid and several pods may join temporarily (for several minutes or hours) to form larger groups called herds or aggregations.

3. Interacting well with other species (symbiosis and competition). In a co-operative sense bottle-nose dolphins have been seen in groups with toothed whales such as pilot whales, spinner dolphins, spotted dolphins, and rough-toothed dolphins. In a competitive sense dolphins respond to sharks with tolerance, avoidance, and aggression. Sharks and killer whales are their natural enemies and dolphins have often been observed attacking, and even killing, tiger sharks in the wild.

4. Looking out for each other (team altruism). If another bottle-nose dolphin is drowning, other dolphins will come to its aid, supporting it with their bodies so its blowhole is above the water allowing it to breathe. Large adult males often roam the periphery of a pod, and may afford some protection against predators.

5. Operating collective team lookout (team intelligence). Scouting behavior has been observed in bottle-nose dolphins where an individual investigates novel objects or unfamiliar territories and "reports" back to the pod.

6. Able to act with autonomy as individuals, not just group members. Dolphins frequently ride on the bow waves or the stern wakes of boats. This is probably adapted from the natural behavior of riding ocean swells, the wakes of large whales, or a mother dolphin's "slip stream". Dolphins have been seen jumping as high as 4.9 meters from the surface of the water and landing on their backs or sides.

7. Exhibiting self awareness. Experiments have been conducted to see if bottle-nose dolphins are self-aware. In scientific terms, self-awareness is observing an animal's reaction to its mirror image.

My response to this article? Seems that "even on a cursory examination," to borrow Thompson's words, "it is clear that dolphins embody many of the principles of" highly effective human families.  Don't you think? Plus, in that we are not just mammals but individuals created in the image of God, might we hope that our social behavior bear even faint resemblances to the eternal fellowship of our Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? And since that is possible, even probable when assisted by the Holy Spirit, there is Hope for Your Home!