What chickens can teach us about hierarchies - 6 Minute English

Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm Neil.

Catherine: And I'm Catherine.

Neil: Catherine, what's the connection between

hierarchies, managers and chickens?

Catherine: Well, I don't know Neil, but I'm, sure you're

going to tell me.

Neil: First of all, could you explain for our listeners

what a hierarchy is?

Catherine: Of course! A hierarchy is a way of organising

people. For example, in a company, where there are

people working at different levels. You've

got bosses, managers and workers.

The workers do the work and the managers have

meetings that stop the workers doing the work!

Neil: But where do the chickens come in?

We'll find out shortly, but first here is today's question

and it is – surprise, surprise – about chickens.

What is the record number of eggs laid by one chicken

in a year? Is it:

a: 253

b: 371

or c: 426

What do you think Catherine:?

Catherine: Well, I think most chickens lay an egg once

a day, so I think it's 371.

Neil: Well, we will have an answer later in the

programme.

Now, for hierarchies and chickens.

In the radio programme The Joy of 9 to 5,

produced by Somethin' Else for the BBC,

entrepreneur Margaret Heffernan

described an experiment.

In this experiment, researchers compared the

egg production of a group of average chickens

to a group of super-chickens.

That's chickens with an above average egg production.

Which was the most successful?

Here's Margaret Heffernan, and by the way,

the noun for a group of chickens is a flock.

Margaret Heffernan: He compares the two flocks

over six generations.

The average flock just gets better and better and better.

Egg production increases dramatically.

The super-flock of super-chickens,

at the end of six generations, all but three are dead,

because the other three have killed the rest.

They've achieved their individual

productivity by suppressing the productivity of the rest.

And that's what we do at work.

Neil: Which flock was most successful?

Catherine: Well, the super-flock actually killed each

other, so it turned out that the average flock

laid more eggs in total and was more successful.

Neil: Yes, but why was that?

Catherine: Well, the super-chickens must have seen

their other flock members not as colleagues,

but as competitors.

Now to understand this, we have to start with the word

'productivity'.

This noun refers to the amount of work that's done.

So, on an individual level, the super-chickens achieved

productivity because they suppressed

the productivity of their flock members.

'Suppressed' here means they 'stopped the other

chickens from being productive' by killing them.

Neil: So, what do we learn from this experiment?

Catherine: Well, Margaret Heffernan suggests that we

see this kind of behaviour in the human workplace.

When everyone is equal, productivity is high,

but as soon as there's a hierarchy

- as soon as there are managers -

things can go wrong because not all managers see their

role as making life easier for the workers.

They demonstrate their productivity as managers,

by interfering with the productivity of the workers.

Neil: But there are other experiments which show

that chickens are productive in a hierarchy.

How are those hierarchies different though?

Here's Margaret Heffernan again.

Margaret Heffernan: So chickens have an inbuilt

or, if you like, an inherited hierarchy - that's where we

get the term 'pecking order' from.

But it's one that they create among themselves,

rather than one that's imposed upon them.

Neil: So, which hierarchy works, at least for chickens?

Catherine: Well, the best hierarchy is one that isn't

imposed. That means a good hierarchy isn't

forced on the chickens.

They do well when they create the hierarchy themselves,

naturally. They work out the pecking order themselves.

Neil: 'Pecking order' is a great phrase.

We use it to describe levels of importance in an

organisation. The more important you are, the higher in

the pecking order you are.

Where does this phrase originate?

Catherine: Well, 'pecking' describes what chickens do

with their beaks.

They hit or bite other chickens with them.

And the most important or dominant chickens, peck

all the others. The top chicken does all the pecking,

middle-level chickens get pecked and do some pecking

themselves, and some chickens are only pecked

by other chickens.

So, there is a definite pecking order in chickens.

Neil: Right, time to review this week's vocabulary,

but before that let's have the answer to the quiz.

I asked what the record number of eggs

laid by a single chicken in a year was.

The options were:

a: 253

b: 371

or c: 426

What did you say, Catherine?

Catherine: I said 371.

Neil: Well, lucky you! You're definitely top of

the pecking order, aren't you?

Because you are right!

Catherine: That's a lot of eggs!

Neil: Indeed. Now, the vocabulary.

We are talking about 'hierarchies'

- a way to organise a society or workplace with

different levels of importance.

Catherine: An expression with a similar meaning is

'pecking order', which relates to how important

someone, or a chicken, is, within a hierarchy.

Neil: A group of chickens is a 'flock'.

It's also the general collective noun for birds as well,

not just chickens.

Catherine: Another of our words was the noun

'productivity',

which refers to 'the amount of work that is done'.

Neil: And if you 'suppress' someone's productivity,

you stop them from being as productive

as they could be.

Catherine: And finally, there was the verb to 'impose'.

If you impose something, you force it on people.

For example,

the government imposed new taxes on fuel.

Neil: Well that is the end of the programme. For

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- bbclearningenglish.com.

See you soon, bye.

Catherine: Bye!