And then, all of a sudden, the family began to function. Pa got up and a lighted another lantern. Noah from a box in the kitchen, brought out the bow-bladed butchering knife and whetted it on a worn little carborundum stone. And he laid the scraper on the chopping block, and the knife beside it. Pa brought two sturdy sticks, each three feet long, and pointed the ends with the ax, and he tied strong ropes, double half-hitched, to the middle of the sticks.
– John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 10. When the Joads set about slaughtering the pigs and salting the pork for the journey, the family seems to operate like a well-oiled machine. Nobody has to say anything, each member knows their task and sets about doing it.