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Last fortnight we talked about Cattle Flight Zones.
This week, we’ll look more closely at Points of Balance.
I said the Point of Balance is at a cow’s shoulders.
This wasn’t quite right.
It is often at their shoulders.
But it moves around, just like a person’s Center of Gravity.
Center of Gravity
Let’s say you control your opponent’s Center of Gravity in a fight.
You will have controlled them.
U.S Marine Corps Doctrine extends the idea of a Center of Gravity to groups.
Each belligerent is not a unitary force, but a complex system consisting of numerous physical, moral, and mental components as well as the relationships among them. The combination of these factors determines each belligerent's unique character. Some of these factors are more important than others. Some may contribute only marginally to the belligerent's power, and their loss would not cause significant damage. Others may be fundamental sources of capability.
We ask ourselves:
Which factors are critical to the enemy?
Which can the enemy not do without?
Which, if eliminated, will bend him most quickly to our will?
These are Centers of Gravity.
To move a herd of cattle, the herder moves into and out of a cow’s flight zone.
Toward, ahead of, away, and behind their Point of Balance.
But a herd has a Point of Balance, too.
Just like a battalion has a Center of Gravity.
Sensing where this is, herders can move in relation to it.
Herders move in and out of the collective Flight Zone.
Toward and away from the collective Point of Balance.
They move in straight lines to keep the direction clear.
The dotted line with small dashes represents the outer edges of the animal's zone of awareness (pressure zone). When the pressure zone is entered, the animals become aware of the handler's presence. The handler is inside the outer edge of the collective flight zone when he walks in the opposite direction of desired movement to speed the herd up and move them forward. The handler is outside the collective flight, but still inside the pressure zone when he walks in the same direction of desired movement.
When I had a hamster, I was curious about how to train her.
I found that hamsters respond best to negative reward. That is, me moving away after I approached. If I stayed too close to her, like I might with a dog, it would make her anxious (and so violent).
So training a hamster was a question of moving close, and then moving away.
The same is true for a herd.
Most ways to move another body work best with a combination of push and pull.
Establish contact to push. Pull away contact to use the animal’s desire to move.
"Cattle want to see you" according to Ron Gill, Texas A&M University. They will turn and look at you when you are just outside of their flight zone. There are many different names for this zone, such as pressure zone, zone of awareness, or zone of influence. Cattle handling specialist Curt Pate explains that groups of cattle can be easily sorted through a gate by using a combination of "driving pressure" when the flight zone is entered and "drawing pressure" when the handler is just outside the boundary of the flight zone. The cattle will want to watch and walk towards the handler. A skilled person can sort cattle by carefully alternating between "driving pressure" and "drawing pressure" to sort individual cattle from the others.
Perhaps you’ve sense some of these dynamics already, in humans.
People who look at it a lot have come up with terms like ‘attachment styles’.
Attachment styles are there because we use making and pulling away from contact to herd each other.
A dance.
I invite you to look at how your movements affect others.
Where is their Point of Balance?
What about the Point of Balance of a group?
Businesses are often seeking the Point of Balance in their given market.