Agile through the eyes of a Biologist
Some interesting parallels I’ve noticed between Agile and nature.
I have been a Scrum Master for 10 years now, but when I was young, I studied Biology at Utrecht University. The highpoint of my studies was working with Orangutans in the forests of Sumatra, where I spent about 7 months in a remote research camp following the Orangutans from sunrise to sunset, in one of the most beautiful jungles left in the world.
Those were long days of solitude, immersed in the mindfulness of nature, and in silent communion with a solitary Orangutan, peacefully going about her daily routine: looking for fruit trees, eating, everything in slow motion. And a lot of sleeping.
Until a given tree, usually a fig tree, suddenly produced millions of fruit, allowing multiple Orangutans to gather together to feed at that one tree. In those circumstances, the Orangutan suddenly becomes a social animal, with individuals interacting extensively with each other.
Fights, sex, children playing together. I found it mesmerising.
That’s how I discovered that social organisation in apes is determined by environmental factors. You can literally explain the way apes will organise themselves by the place they live.