Page 49 - Branch Leader Guide

Charcot-Marie-Tooth
Association

Lesson: It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership – with
people, as with geese, interdependent with one other.

The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their
speed.

Lesson: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging - not something
less helpful.

When a goose gets sick or wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and
follow their fellow member down to help provide protection. They stay with this member
of the flock until he or she is either able to fly again or dies. Then they launch out on their
own, with another formation, or catch up with their own flock.

Lesson: If we have as much sense as the geese, we’ll stand by each other like that.

Lessons from the Geese, was written in 1972 by Dr. Robert McNeish of
Baltimore. Dr. McNeish, for many years a science teacher before he became
involved in school administration, had been intrigued with observing geese for
years and first wrote the piece for a sermon he delivered in his church.

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