Whoop whoop

Bees have been headbutting each other for millions of years. It turns out it's an act of care. In the eighth episode of PiXL Pearls Series 10, Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO) takes a close look at what researchers discovered when they put accelerometers inside beehives and listened properly for the first time. The signal they had been misreading for decades, a sound that converts to something like "whoop whoop", wasn't a request for food or a warning about predators. It was a startled response. One bee headbutting another to stop it flying towards danger. The whooping was surprise. The headbutt was protection. It's a more useful leadership metaphor than it first appears. Three ideas sit at the heart of this episode: the discipline of communicating clearly enough that others can follow your lead without needing words to fill the gap; the value of the people brave enough to ask the jolting question, "are you sure?, before a mistake becomes irreversible; and the importance of actually knowing what the noise in your organisation means. Are people whooping because they are energised and fulfilled? Or because something is rattling the hive and nobody has named it yet? A stressed colony is noisier than a calm one. The same is true of schools. How clear is your waggle dance and do you know the difference between the good kind of "whoop whoop" and the bad? Tune in today. If you enjoyed PiXL Pearls... Check out the PiXL website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for free downloads Read Rachel's four books: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Time to Think 1: The Things that stop us and how to deal with them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Time to Think 2: The Things that stop our teams and what to do about them⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Box Clever: Quadrants to change the way we live and lead⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Connected: Focusing on 'me' and 'we' Listen to the PiXL Leadership Bookclub. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PiXL Pearls are short reflections on life and leadership which inspire, encourage, motivate and challenge thinking. The series is hosted by Rachel Johnson (PiXL CEO), who draws on literature, life and experience in leadership to explore different elements of what it is to be a good leader and how we can become even better leaders, both in and out of schools. PiXL Pearls Podcast is a We Are In Beta Production. PiXL is a partnership organisation of thousands of schools, colleges and alternative education providers spanning KS1-5. Find out more about how you could gain value from a PiXL subscription: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.pixl.org.uk/membership⁠⁠⁠⁠