Wolfpack

I have read a few books lately that I have loved because they are great books, and also because they are under 100 pages. In this era of information abundance I often find myself slipping into information overload. Sometimes I wonder if curiosity, untethered, can be a curse. So much to learn! So little time! Short books, done well, can share a lot of information in doses that are understandable, integrate-able and actionable. Abby Wambach's Wolfpack is a great example of this. She has a simple but powerful message and she shares it clearly and concisely so that we can take it and run. 

Abby Wambach is an educator, leader, activist and one of the best professional soccer players of all time. Wolfpack is based on her 2018 commencement speech for the graduating class of Barnard College. The speech is addressed to women, but the message is for all of us.

In the Note To Reader she writes:
Since I identify as a woman, this book is written from a woman's point of view. The leadership ideas, however, are universal. 

Recently, on a call with a company hiring me to teach about leadership, a man said, "Excuse me, Abby, I just need to ensure that what you present is applicable to men too." 

I said, "Good question! But only if you've asked every male speaker you've hired if his message is applicable to women, too."

She asserts, and I agree, that women have the potential to bring qualities we all need to the table: dedication to working collaboratively and inclusively, commitment to identifying problems and fixing them so that the greatest number benefit, willingness to work incredibly hard to transform failure into achievement and, perhaps most importantly, an alternative to the masculine world view that has so long dominated our leadership. This isn't only about women being in leadership roles, it's about all of us, however we define gender, embracing the feminine perspective so long underrepresented by leadership in our society. Her analogy of the reintroduction of wolves at Yellowstone National Park is a descriptive example of the importance of balance in an ecosystem, whether ecological or social. 

From the introduction:
As I focused on what I wanted to share with the women of Barnard- a directive to unleash their individuality, unite the collective, and change the landscape- my thoughts turned to a TED Talk I'd watched recently about the wolves of Yellowstone National Park.

In 1995, wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone after being absent for seventy years. It was a controversial decision, but rangers decided it was a risk worth taking, because the land was in trouble...

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During those seventy years, the number of deer skyrocketed because they were alone and unchallenged at the top of the food chain. They grazed unchecked and reduced the vegetation so severely that the riverbanks eroded. 

Once a small number of wolves arrived, big changes started happening almost immediately.

First, they thinned out the deer through hunting. But more important, the presence of the wolves drastically changed the behavior of the remaining deer. Wisely, the deer started avoiding the places they'd be most vulnerable to the wolves- the valleys- and the vegetation in those places regenerated. The height of the trees quintupled in just six years. Birds and beavers started moving in. The beavers built dams, which provided habitats for otters and ducks and fish. Ravens and bald eagles returned to eat the carrion left by the wolves. Bears came back and berries started growing again. 

But that wasn't all. The rivers actually changed as well. The plant regeneration stabilized the riverbanks, so they stopped collapsing. The rivers flowed freely again. 

The plant ecosystem regenerated.
The animal ecosystem regenerated. 
The entire landscape changed. 
All because of the wolves' presence. 

See what happened there?

The wolves—who were feared by many to be a threat to the system—became the system's salvation. 

Now look around our world today: See what's happening here?

Women- who are feared by many to be a threat to our system- will become our society's salvation. 

We are the ones we have been waiting for.
WE.
ARE.
THE.
WOLVES.