How to build a great career by working together as a group, like bees.
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You’ve probably heard your coworkers refer to themselves as worker bees. That’s because bees are known for their organization and hard work. A beehive is a complex structure with thousands of bees working together for the common good of the hive. Each bee has a specific role to play within the hive, and working together makes the hive function efficiently.
Like honeybees, business organizations are complex ecosystems that require group intelligence (GQ) or hive mind to function optimally and create meaningful change. I spoke over email with Siobhán McHale, author of The Hive Mind at Work: Harnessing the Power of Group Intelligence to Create Meaningful and Lasting Change. She said business leaders can learn lessons from how honeybees organize themselves and work together for the survival of the colony.
Lesson 1: Goal-Oriented
“Honeybees have always done the right thing for the ecosystem, serving as super-pollinators that contribute $14.6 billion in agricultural production to the U.S. economy each year,” McHale told me. “Worker bees visit more than 1,000 flowers a day to gather supplies for the hive, flying a distance equivalent to one and a half times the circumference of the Earth in their lifetime to produce less than a teaspoon of honey. Bees work for both the well-being of the hive and the ecosystem on which its very existence depends.”
McHale argues that today’s business organizations should be run in the same way. “Every organization and every member of that organization should have a clear sense of purpose,” she says. “Without an overarching purpose, you’re just going through the motions. With an overarching purpose, not only can you accomplish great things, but you can also get through some very difficult times as a team.”
Lesson 2: Role Clarification
According to McHale, each bee has a specific role and performs that role in harmony with other bees. “Some worker bees fly out to find food to turn the golden nectar into honey,” McHale says. “Other bees act as nurses, taking care of the baby bees and feeding them royal jelly to ensure their development. Scavengers remove trash and create the cleanest, most germ-free environment in nature. Bees are born with a specific role, but they may change roles as conditions change within the hive. In times of peace and danger, a colony of bees functions as a well-functioning ecosystem. Amazingly, the teamwork of bees allows the production of over 300 pounds of honey each season.”
In organizations, roles influence behavior as powerfully as personality, she notes. Organizations with clear roles perform well, but she warns that team members can have outdated perceptions of their roles, especially during times of change, adding that a key priority for leaders in high-performing roles is to ensure that employees have a clear and consistent understanding of their roles.
Lesson 3: Ecological awareness
McHale explains that in the late spring and summer, hives can become so overcrowded that they can double in size. “When the hive space becomes too overcrowded, the queen’s pheromones cannot reach the entire hive, and the normal order of the hive can be disrupted,” she reports. “Honey collectors who are overcrowded know that the hive will not be able to collect enough honey to survive the harsh winter. The millers look for signs of overcrowding, determine that the hive will not be able to collect enough food to feed the entire hive over the winter, and decide to initiate a major change by splitting the hive into two colonies. It’s a tough change, but their long-term survival depends on it.”
She points out that in today’s volatile business environment, constant vigilance is necessary, but it’s not always easy to see reality and, more importantly, to accept it. “It’s natural to continue doing things the way they’ve always done them, fearing the discomfort that change will bring,” she explains. “Unfortunately, too many business leaders don’t look beyond the immediate, day-to-day issues to the underlying problems that could threaten their company’s survival. Leaders need to look for subtle and not-so-subtle cues in the environment that signal danger looming if major changes aren’t made.”
Lesson 4: Decision making
When an overcrowded hive splits, McHale watches thousands of bees take off and land on nearby strongholds, such as tree branches. She describes how scouts fly out from these temporary strongholds to search for the perfect location for a new nest. “Scouts survey potential nests against a list of criteria, including volume, height above ground, size of entrance, and exposure to sunlight. When a scout finds a potential new nest, it returns to the branch and reports back in the form of a highly energetic dance. An excited dance spurs action, while a more subdued dance suggests the bees will search elsewhere for a new nest. Out of their hectic dance, one option emerges as the best possibility. The bees know that they need to be extremely careful before moving the entire colony to a new nest.”
McHale likens this process to a wise business leader knowing that executives can’t make the best decisions consistently. She adds, “Decisions improve when the entire ecosystem is involved in the process and leaders harness the power of group intelligence. Executives should never make important decisions without consulting the people who actually do the work.”
Lesson 5: Prepare for change
As the bees prepare to leave their temporary location and head to their new hive, the clock is ticking, McHale notes, with the swarm only able to survive for three days on the honey they devoured before leaving the hive. She explains that they motivate the swarm by head-butting each other and repeatedly making small, high-pitched beeps that signal, “The decision has been made, stop wagging your tail and move along!” To achieve the much-needed change, the bees need to cajole everyone into joining them on the migration. To get everyone on board with a proposed move or change of direction, the bees take on the role of change leader, something that McHale argues is often overlooked in the workplace.
McHale points out that organizational change is a complex, often messy, sometimes frustrating, and never easy endeavor. “Each situation has no easy answers or ready-made solutions. Regardless of the nature of the business, stakeholders expect the best thinking and planning to be put into any major change. A high-level plan outlines how you will navigate the change journey and address risks that may affect progress. Organizational change often requires leaders who can develop action plans and make key decisions amid uncertainty and ambiguity,” McHale concludes.
