The Five Habits of Highly Effective Honeybees (and What We Can Learn from Them): From Honeybee Democracy

by Thomas D. Seeley

Studies of animal behavior have often been invoked to help explain and even guide human behavior. Think of Pavlov and his dogs or Goodall and her chimps. But, as these examples indicate, the tendency has been to focus on "higher," more cognitively developed, and thus, it is thought, more intelligent creatures than mindless, robotic insects. Not so! Learn here how honeybees work together to form a collective intelligence and even how they make decisions democratically. The wizzzzdom of crowds indeed! Here are five habits of effective groups that we can learn from these clever honeybees.

Princeton Shorts are brief selections excerpted from influential Princeton University Press publications produced exclusively in eBook format. They are selected with the firm belief that while the original work remains an important and enduring product, sometimes we can all benefit from a quick take on a topic worthy of a longer book.

In a world where every second counts, how better to stay up-to speed on current events and digest the kernels of wisdom found in the great works of the past? Princeton Shorts enables you to be an instant expert in a world where information is everywhere but quality is at a premium. The Five Habits of Highly Effective Honeybees (and What We Can Learn from Them) does just that.

18 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Thomas D. Seeley is professor of biology at Cornell University and a passionate beekeeper. He is the author of The Wisdom of the Hive and Honeybee Ecology (Princeton).

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very convenient that this chapter of Honeybee Democracy was published separately. Honey bees provide us with many useful products and services (like honey, wax, and pollination), and examples of virtue (like cooperation, industriousness, and self-sacrifice). To that latter list Prof. Seeley has added five lessons of good group decision-making. This is impressive enough just as an example of animal sophistication, but the lessons are actually useful.

However, Prof. Seeley forgot a lesson, which should be inserted at the No. 2 position: Make group decisions sparingly, only when necessary, or when it at least makes sense. Groups are better than individuals at some decisions, but not most. Honey bees vote on very few questions. In his more recent book The Lives of Bees, Prof. Seeley describes all manner of decisions made by individual bees according to their local knowledge, without central coordination. One of the biggest myths about honey bees is that they are centrally controlled by the queen. In fact, they almost always act independently, doing what they see needs doing (“scratching their own itches”, as they say in the open-source software community), but sometimes coordinating with other individuals. I’m not competent to describe all this, so I’ll just recommend The Lives of Bees, and let Prof. Seeley update his list when and how he sees fit.

[David Jayakar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent wisdom

Great information to build successful teams. Very useful for a team leader to read the book and communicate it to the members

[Luiz Brizuela · Rating 5 out of 5]

😭😭😭✨🐝☀️🍯💛🫂🫂🫂🫂