5 lessons bees teach us to create a hive-based job and career

You’ve probably heard a fellow bee refer to themselves as a worker bee. That’s because bees are known for their organizational skills and hard work. A hive is a complex structure with thousands of bees working together for the good of the colony. Each bee has a specific role within the colony and their coordinated efforts keep the hive running efficiently.

Much like bees, business organizations are complex ecosystems that require group intelligence (GQ) or a hive mind to function optimally and create meaningful change. I spoke by email with Siobhán McHale, author of The Hive Mind at Work: Harnessing the Power of Group Intelligence to Create Meaningful and Lasting Change. She told me that business leaders can learn from how beehives organize and work together to ensure the survival of the colony.

Lesson #1: Goal-oriented

“Bees have always done the right thing for their ecosystem and their role as Super pollinators “These are the most important bees in the world, providing $14.6 billion worth of crops to the U.S. economy annually,” McHale informed me. “A worker bee can visit over a thousand flowers in a single day to gather supplies for the hive, and will travel one and a half times the circumference of the Earth in its lifetime to produce less than a teaspoon of honey. Bees work for the well-being of the hive as well as for the ecosystem upon which the hive’s existence depends.”

McHale insists that today’s business organizations must function in the same way. “Every organization and every member of that organization should have a clear purpose,” she explains. “Without an overarching goal, it’s just routine work. Having a goal like that not only allows you to achieve great things, but also gets through very difficult times as a team.”

Lesson #2: Role Clarity

According to McHale, each bee takes on a specific role and performs it in harmony with bees that take on other roles. “Some worker bees fly out to forage for food supplies that turn golden nectar into honey,” she says. “Others serve as nurses, caring for the young and feeding them royal jelly to ensure successful growth. Cleaners remove debris, creating one of the cleanest, most sterile environments in nature. Although a honey bee is born into a specific role, it can change its tasks in response to changing conditions in the hive. In peacetime and in situations of danger, the collective hive functions as a well-functioning ecosystem. Amazingly, their team efforts can produce more than 300 pounds of honey per season.”

She points out that role in organizations influences behavior in ways that are as powerful as personality. While organizations with clear roles achieve amazing results, she warns that team members can sometimes have an outdated perception of their roles, especially during times of change. She adds that one of the key priorities for leaders in high-performance roles is to ensure employees have a clear and aligned view of their role.

Lesson #3: Ecosystem Awareness

McHale describes how hives can become overcrowded in late spring and summer, often doubling in size. “Space in the hive can become so tight that the queen’s pheromones cannot reach the entire colony, disrupting the hive’s usual order,” she reports. “With their home outsized, the honey gatherers know they cannot produce enough honey to get the colony through the harsh winter months ahead. The honey gatherer community examines the signs of overcrowding, realizes they cannot gather enough supplies to feed the entire group over the winter, and decides to make a major change by splitting the hive into two populations. It’s a huge change, but long-term survival depends on it.”

She points out that today’s volatile business environment requires constant vigilance, although it is not always easy to see or, more importantly, accept reality. “It’s only natural to want to keep doing things the way they are because you’re afraid of the inconveniences that change might bring,” she explains. “Unfortunately, too many business leaders fail to look beyond the pressing day-to-day issues and see the underlying problems that could threaten their survival. Leaders need to look for subtle and not so subtle clues in their environment, signals that tell you that danger is imminent if you don’t make major changes.”

Lesson #4: Decision Making

When a crowded hive is split, McHale observes that thousands of bees fly off and settle on a nearby staging area, such as a tree branch. She describes how scouts fly out from this temporary staging area in search of ideal locations for the new hive. “These scouts inspect potential homes and rate them based on a list of criteria, including volume, height above ground, size of entrance, and sunlight exposure. Once a scout has found a potential new home, she returns to the branch to give her report in the form of a very lively dance. While an excited dance calls for action, a quieter one suggests the bees to look for a new home elsewhere. Out of all their frantic dancing, one choice emerges as the best option. The bees know to be very careful before moving the entire colony to the new home.”

McHale compares this process to smart business leaders who know that the best decisions don’t come from the C-suite. She continues, “Decisions get better when the entire ecosystem is involved in the process and when leaders harness the power of group intelligence. Those who live in the C-suite should never make important decisions without consulting the people who actually do the work.”

Lesson #5: Willingness to change

As the bees prepare to leave the makeshift staging area and head to their new home, time is running out, and the colony can only survive for about three days on the honey it crammed into itself before leaving the hive, McHale notes. She describes how the bees mobilize the colony by head-butting each other and repeatedly emitting small, high-pitched beeps to signal, “We’ve made a decision, stop wiggling and move on!” To achieve the much-needed change, they must nudge everyone to join the migration. The bees are taking on their role as change leaders, convincing everyone of a proposed move or change in direction—something we often don’t see in the workplace, she suspects.

McHale points out that organizational change is a complicated, often messy, sometimes frustrating, and rarely simple undertaking. “Each unique situation resists easy answers or ready-made solutions. No matter the nature of your business, your stakeholders expect you to do your best and plan for any major change. A high-level plan outlines how you will manage the change process and address the risks that can impede progress. Organizational change often requires leaders who can plan a course of action and make important decisions despite uncertainty and ambiguity,” she concludes.