20 Management Lessons

 

1. Protect the Future. Bees don’t focus exclusively on the most productive flower patches at any given time, and for good reason. Conditions Change rapidly for bees and they can ill afford wide swings in pollen and nectar intake. …………From a business angle, bees invest heavily in research and development, constantly on the lookout for the next best thing, while taking in revenues from the available sources. All a bee does is in anticipation of the future. Bees think and act long-term. Faced with ecological conditions, they forage over a wide territory – think wide and deep, not narrow and deep. When pickings are slim, they don't downsize the hive; scout bees find new sources…….. Honeybees will never be too big to fail because they have a built-in failsafe to prevent that from ever happening. …………… Research In Motion, the makers of the BlackBerry, failed to take in this wisdom. They failed to discover that their source of plenty might eventually dwindle. They overindulged and underexplored and before they knew it, Apple came from ‘nowhere’. Since they say history repeats itself, hope that Apple will not be found snoozing by Samsung. One need only look at the graveyard of brand name companies to know that many don’t protect their future.  An Organisation’s innovative capacity is critical to its longevity.  Organisations that orient themselves to their external environment and are hyper aware of, and adapt to, its changing circumstance are better equipped to protect their own futures.   There is a direct correlation between your ability to protect your future and your ability to innovate. With the average life expectancy of a multi-national/Fortune 500 company at about 40-50 years,  even the biggest and best don’t do it well.

 

2. Guard against worst-case scenarios. The hive can’t afford catastrophic failure, since the result is death. So, colonies don’t gamble with their lives at stake. Instead, they build redundancies into their operations so that if information goes missing, it is quickly replaced; and if specialized parts (bees performing specific tasks) are lost, others soon take their place. For example, when bees return to the hive, they carry vital information about the outside world. More than one bee carries the same information (parallel processing) so that critical data never goes missing. The greatest redundancy exists when the information is most vital. For example, more bees will advertise the best flower patches, so the most repetitious data occur when excellent foraging opportunities exist and honeybees can little afford to lose sight of them. We’ve all had experience with specialized parts that fail because they are defective, overloaded, or dead—and their failure can result in sputtering performance or a thunderous crash. A campaign may be postponed while an employee is out sick or on vacation, but bees can’t wait to feed the young or gather more nectar if the need is present. Bees have flexible work structures to compensate for the temporary loss of specialization so that they can operate productively. For example, when the hive finds itself short of expert foragers, it either expedites the development of a few precocious fast trackers or pulls from a cohort of reserves. The colony requires replacement parts.

 

3. Accept the inevitability of failure, but only if it is not habitual. Bees are undeterred by a single incidence of failure because they have a long-term perspective and multiple chances to obtain favorable results: they realize that they don’t have to succeed every time; hence, they never stop trying. Since bees are good at what they do, recurring failure is not a problem. If bees fail, it is because there is no possible way they could have overcome highly adverse circumstances. The hive is guided by both the ongoing acquisition of facts and attention to detail—analogous to well informed companies that understand their markets, customers, and emerging competition. Otherwise, bees would get lost in a colorful sea of flora. For example,………………. With 17 known communication signals and continuous learning, bees quickly transform unstable environments into places of order and are proactive because they know failure is inevitable in the hive.

 

4. Make good-enough decisions. Bees act with incomplete information. In management, we often believe that only one correct answer exists or that answers are either right or wrong rather than better or worse. A decision does not have to be perfect, just good. As bees instruct, incomplete information is not the same as insufficient information. When colonies divest of a swarm, the resulting cluster must find a new place to live quickly. So, they do not invest in a long search for the perfect home: the ideal home may exist, but they can ill-afford to find it. Instead, they opt for a home that’s good enough using two decision processes that protect them against costly errors. First, the colony entertains a range of site options obtained by information gathering scouts. ……….. Second, bees independently scrutinize alternatives to prevent the propagation of errors. Scouts vote on sites until opinion converges on a single home. Bees do not commit to bad ideas because the assessors evaluate the nominated sites at wing’s length from the advocates of those sites. In Organisations, interdependencies among decision makers can ignite a chain reaction of blind conformity. In deferring to the opinions of those whose views are most influential, committees may air too few options and short-circuit exploratory discussion. Make good enough decisions. Unlike businesses, bees don't suffer from paralysis analysis. ……

 

5. Make the right mistakes. The honeycomb is subject to constraints, primarily the expenditure of energy. The design is economical. However, the bees still face a resource allocation dilemma concerning when and how much honeycomb to build. Bees incur heavy costs when building comb. The wax is produced from the sugars of stored honey and is molded through thermoregulation. The use of the honey reserves and expenditure of energy is high. Building too much comb too soon will deplete honey stores, occupy workers who could be used on other tasks, and threaten the viability of the hive. But doing too little too late will rob bees of their foodstuff in the future as they’ll lack requisite storage space for honey. This is a familiar allocation problem: produce too much product and it sits on a shelf; produce too little, and people will buy another company’s goods, or none at all. Honeybees construct combs in pulses, contingent on two related conditions: nectar flow and the proportion of the comb cells filled with honey. Bees have a mobile criterion for building. When nectar is scarce, the fuller the comb has to be for work to commence. If nectar is plentiful…………………Small errors are better than one massive error, and bees are sure to protect themselves against the big mistake

 

6. Distribute Authority.  With many thousands of employed workers, the queen couldn’t possibly direct all of the actions in the field from her command post. While the queen is the generic heart and soul of the hive, she is by no means the only leader. Those closest to the information should make the relevant decision. Decentralization is one of the hallmarks of the honeybee colony. Decision-making is decentralized. Each bee makes its own decisions based on what it sees around it, so it's impossible for one authoritative bee to burn everything to the ground. Bees also communicate constantly so that each bee has good information to work with. The queen bee delegates relentlessly, and worker bees make daily decisions based on local cues and requirements. ……………. however, consider these facts first: 1) bees have clear objectives; 2) they are excellent communicators and are able to quickly take in and consolidate information—and transform that information into coordinated action; and 3) they are reliable workers that are very good at what they do.

 

7. Divide Duties. Bees lead a structured life. Their roles are well defined, and they are genetically programmed not to trespass into another's territory. There is no conflict of roles, and that's the perfect model to adopt in any Organisation. Let's say, you define waking up and going to work as a daily goal. That's not a definite goal. A professional goal needs clarity. It must be worth achieving so that a specific outcome can be expected, as is the case with bees working towards one clear goal — to produce honey.

 

8. Work hard. A worker honey bee, on her job, is perpetually on her feet, just like the matriarch who saves for the future. The honey bees' work ethics have even inspired adages ('being busy as a bee', 'be the bee's knees' which means it is not good enough if you sit around warming your chair, letting others take the workload!") deadlines, all of which guarantee productivity and satisfied clients. In the modern workplace, loyalty is an ethic that's highly valued. Remember, most employers want to hire professionals they can nurture so that the company stands to gain. Over time, this loyalty reaps benefits for the employee too, whether it's through perks or promotion.

 

9. Co-operate. The spirit of cooperation is more important to bees than the spirit of competition. It takes a cluster of them to derive honey; they know they can't do it alone. And this is possible only because they coexist. Members of a professional team must bring in their own experience and expertise to a project to help create an effective product. Communicating and sharing ideas is crucial, as is mutual respect for each member's contribution.

 

10. Be loyal. Loyalty to one's community is key to its long term survival. If bees are storing pollen and processing nectar from a one plant, they will not be distracted until the time they are done working on that particular plant. In a very silent way, there's a mutual understanding between the flower and the bee about what they'd like to achieve from each other. The flowers trust them because over time, bees have established themselves as a loyal species. A loyal employee is one who sticks to guidelines and working hours.

 

11. Be Punctual. Punctuality is a common professional ethic that most of us fall short on. For bees, everything depends on the sun. They start their day soon after the sun rises, and return to their hives around 3.30 pm (unless the skies are overcast). Keeping time helps them deliver optimum results. In a professional set up, the workplace operates smoothly when workers stick to time. Being late often increases stress levels, and that's not the best state to be in if you wish to be productive. Being habitually late can lock you into a pattern. When tardiness becomes the norm, even your job might be in jeopardy.

 

12. Duty comes first, rights next. For bees, society comes first, the self comes later. It's a fiercely protective species. In a hive, one worker bee serves as a guard who prosecutes intruders who try breaking into the hive. If threatened, it stings. "When a bee stings, it dies. It sacrifices its own life to protect its community and colleagues. For bees, it is duty first.”

 

13. Order and Innovate Through Fuzzy Constants. Much of the activity of bees is calibrated to constants that allow them to find their way home. When an Organisation adopts and fastens itself to a few immutable principles, the system as a whole becomes more reliable. A degree of error in the form of initiative, original thinking, and experimentation can then be tolerated. Constants do not drive out originality; they make it possible. Where several solutions exist in shifting, Complex settings, Organisations require the intrusion of some variability—but never to the point of disorder.

 

14. Keep Your Balance. One of the principle ways that bees moderate extreme behaviors is through genetic diversity. Hives are diverse. Bees assemble many options before making a big decision, and then vote independently. The more diversity in the bees' DNA, the larger the range of options the bees will come up with, since they're sensitive to different conditions. This genetic diversity produces bees within the same hives that are differentially sensitive to environmental conditions. ……………………Managers should strive to hire capable people who, as a group, provide the team with a range of perspectives and worldviews. Otherwise Organisations can become closed societies. In addition to making conscious effort to hire in a fair-minded way, take time to select people who are naturally inquisitive and who have varied interests.

 

15.  Prepare For Leadership Changes. A colony headed by a high-quality queen has a more robust worker population and greater honey yield. It matters a great deal who is at the top. Consequently, it is not surprising that the workers in the hive pay close attention to the queen’s ability to propagate and are sensitive to declines in her performance. The queen’s ability to lead is determined ultimately by the minions, a truth unfortunately lost in many Organisations. Leadership depends on the consent of the people to follow. In the instance of bees, the voice of workers is loud and clear….If the honeybee teaches us anything, it is that Organisations cannot survive without a leader and therefore, the colony prevents costly voids in leadership by planning for successors in advance of the obvious need. Colonies die without their top bee; Organisations become pathological sans leadership.

 

16. Permit individuality. I see two dimensions to this lesson.  The notion of permitting individuality is both about the distribution of decision making as well as the diversity of personnel.  While innovation is both a product and a process, ideas themselves are usually the by product  of individual creativity and group collaboration.  Permitting individuality at both layers in an Organisation increases its agility and creativity, thus boosting its innovative capacity and ability to protect its future.

 

17. Promote stability. Barriers to innovation in the public sector – delivery pressures and administrative burdens, lack of resources, and low tolerance for risk – and how public sector Organisations need to better embrace failure and ensure that the learning from those failures are harvested and harnessed.   The lesson of promoting stability is again one that has two dimensions to it.  First, and related to the above barriers, Organisations need to create stability in the minds of resources within the Organisation that innovation is indeed important and will be supported both politically as well as with resources.  ……………  Second, Organisations need to promote stability by trying to habituate innovation.  While ideas are creative, innovation itself is a process that requires practice. 

18. Develop your team. Bees go through "an orderly developmental progression." They learn how operations work inside the hive before they become foragers. The foragers have specific jobs – not all gather pollen and nectar. Some bring water to dilute the honey and cool the hive; others bring tree sap to patch holes. Roles are defined and bees are trained by peers. Bees keep it simple as they exChange only relevant information, operate under clear standards, and use straightforward measures and feedback to guide their actions.

 

19. Merit trumps the alternative, any day. Honeybee colonies are meritocracies. The smooth efficient functioning of the hive trumps preservation of an individual’s genetic lineage. This selfless aspect of bees is no less exhibited than by the singular act of bees forsaking their reproductive potential for the good of the group (only the queen has a natural right to reproduce). Simply, bees never play favourites. This, of course, cannot be said of many Organisations where we have a tendency to allow friendship ties and feelings of reciprocity to affect our judgment. Idiosyncratic personnel decisions may appear harmless but ultimately, they add up. Hire a friend here, promote an ally there, sympathetically overlook performance problems elsewhere, and before you know it, you have a compound problem and a mediocre company.

 

20. To eat the honey, contribute to the hive, or be out. Worker bees gather pollen that is used as food for the developing brood. During famine or winter, the hive must live off its fixed store of honey for several months. Those who feast on this golden nectar but do not contribute to the group become expendable and are to be driven out. This occurs quickly and matter-of-factly when the cost of carrying dead wood becomes to great for the hive; an important lessons that the corporate world should note. Many a business executive tolerate inferior performance or disruptive people for too long. Layoffs are not advocated but the bees are simply telling us that our compassion should not jeopardize the greater welfare of the business.