Delegation

Biological Parallel

Elephant matriarchs delegate route-finding and danger assessment to experienced females in their coalition while retaining final movement decisions. Young elephants learn by observing these delegated authorities, creating distributed expertise without fragmenting leadership. This mirrors effective delegation: the matriarch trusts specialists but maintains strategic control. In contrast, when inexperienced matriarchs fail to delegate (often after poaching removes elders), herds make poor water-source decisions and higher calf mortality follows. Delegation isn't abdication—it's leveraging collective intelligence while preserving decisive authority.