As I write this blog, it’s World Book Day and as luck would have it I went to a book launch last night. It was an event for the new publication from Lucy Cooke – ‘Bitch’ – which is described as a revolutionary guide to sex evolution and the female animal. I’ve only just started reading it but if the stories Lucy shared at the launch event are anything to go by, it’s going to be a wild ride.
Lucy explained that female animals have been marginalised and misunderstood by the scientific patriarchy. She explained via some hilarious stories, backed up by research, why what we think we know about female animals is in fact all wrong. The science, and stories Lucy shared challenges our thinking on outdated binary expectations of bodies, brains, biology and behaviour.
As I sat listening to Lucy though, I realised there is more overlap between our world of employee experience and engagement and the animal kingdom than I had first realised.
1. I learnt that the evolution of the species is less about finding perfection and more about learning what works and doing more of that. This immediately resonated with the strength-based approach we use in our work. And I wondered if this could be a good way to convince sceptical stakeholders to stop endlessly fixing things and pay some attention to how we learn from what works. I hadn’t previously appreciated the link between positive psychology and evolution!
2. Lucy laid to rest the myth of the ‘maternal instinct’. She explained that it’s not one sex that’s programmed to instinctively provide care, it’s just that often it’s one sex that does it. She explained that we are hardwired for connection, and more importantly deep connection can happen between two people no matter their biological sex or whether or not they are related. We know that the opportunity to form authentic and lasting connections at work is important for our experience and engagement. And this insight might help to challenge our biases as to who are the more natural caregivers within the work place
3. And finally Lucy talked about Orcas and empathy which might seem like a paradox given they are better known as killer whales, despite the fact that they are in fact part of the dolphin family. Empathy is one of the key principles of our ‘EX Design’ approach, so it was fascinating to discover that orcas rule when it comes to empathy. In fact they have the most complex ‘ insular cortex’ in the world. The insular cortex is linked to compassion, and empathy. And it is said that orcas have powerful empathy for each other and for humans.
Who knew there would be so much in common between our world of EX and the female animal! I would highly recommend checking Lucy’s book out, it’s funny, enlightening, revolutionary and in the word of Professor Alice Roberts, it blows two centuries of sexist myths right out of biology, which sounds like a great thing to me.
We’d love to hear what books you’d recommend as part of world book day -let us know!
