The Internet is a funny, funny thing.
One of our contributors recently wrote what seemed to me to be a riff on the flying habits of geese. She then applied the lessons we can learn from the geese to what our members can do to further the association.
This was fine if a bit cheesy and I didn't give it any more thought until I received an unsolicited electronic newsletter on leadership the other day at work. One of the articles was titled "Lessons from Geese."
I thought this sounded awfully familiar, so my editorial instincts kicked in and with some trepidation I checked it out. Sure enough, there were the exact same goose facts. Examples:
"As each goose flaps its wings, it creates an "uplift" for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone. "
It's not the first time I have worried about plagiarism at my magazine, although it's always awkward. To be frank, a lot of people don't seem to understand that it's wrong to take other people's words and use them as your own. (They would understand that if they had been in my high school English class, where we were threated with hellfire and torture, not to mention our permanent records, if we so much as THOUGHT about not attributing an idea.)
I nearly called the author to discuss it when something stopped me and made me Google the phrase "leadership~geese." Sure enough, there were 11,000 matches!
You'd be surprised how many people have picked up this story as a leadership piece.
Examples:
Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The United Nations Development Programme.
Healthkick, a martial arts newsletter.
There's even special interest groups, like the Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of Canada Geese.
And you can find out all about Canada Geese in the media here.
And don't forget to HONK.
The ideas are most commonly attributed thusly:
"Lessons from Geese" was transcribed from a speech
given by Angeles Arrrien at the 1991 Organizational
Development Network and was based on the work of Milton Olson.
But I couldn't find any independent authoritative confirmation that any of this was right. Many people have just dispensed with Milton altogether and attributed the ideas to themselves. Nice. One researcher who tried to confirm this notes, kind of obviously, that tracking down the original source is a "wild goose chase."
In the end I was left with what to do with our little column. I ended up adding a sentence to the effect that "These ideas have been widely circulated on the Internet in leadership circles, but the original attribution is unclear." Honk.