For those of you who may not know the Bug’s Life story (or haven’t seen it in a long time), it centers around Flik. Flik is an ant living in a colony that is oppressed by a gang of grasshoppers. But Flik is unlike most of the other ants in the colony in that he is innovative and resourceful!
When the colony’s food is destroyed, Flik proposes that they recruit bigger bugs to fight the grasshoppers. Flik has many setbacks on his quest to fight the grasshoppers and ultimately unites the colony to restore the food source.
As leaders, we often have setbacks and Flik reminds us that innovation and courage continue to be keys to growing our team (our colony). In addition, the collective group that is empowered can transform our fear into a true transformation.
In Flik’s case, his ideas are rejected by the traditional colony’s leaders, but Flik continues to take accountability by owning his actions. Flik also challenges the norms with creative problem-solving even when others doubt him. Ultimately that leads to empowering others which completely transforms the colony. Within the ant colony, he convinces the other ants that they have strength in numbers which allows them to stand up to the grasshoppers.
Flik has a vision that images a better future for the colony and that vision becomes a catalyst for long term change. The shift – from fear to collective confidence – is the ultimate leadership message. Sometimes we have to shift to move forward to create the “colony” that we want!
