The Wisdom of Bees: What the Hive Can Teach Business about Leadership, Efficiency, and Growth

by Michael O'Malley, Roxanne Quimby (Foreword by)

"It seemed to me that the bees were working on the very same kinds of problems we are trying to solve. How can large, diverse groups work together harmoniously and productively? Perhaps we could take what the bees do so well and apply it to our institutions."

When Michael O'Malley first took up beekeeping, he thought it would be a nice hobby to share with his ten-year-old son. But as he started to observe these industrious insects, he noticed that they do a lot more than just make honey. Bees not only work together to achieve a common goal but, in the process, create a highly coordinated, efficient, and remarkably productive organization. The hive behaved like a miniature but incredibly successful business.

O'Malley also realized that bees can actually teach managers a lot about how to run their organizations. He identified twenty-five powerful insights, such

* Distribute authority : the queen bee delegates relentlessly, and worker bees make daily decisions based on local cues and requirements.
* Keep it simple : bees exchange only relevant information, operate under clear standards, and use straightforward measures and feedback to guide their actions.
* Protect the future : when a lucrative vein of nectar is discovered, the entire colony doesn't rush off to mine it, no matter how enriching the short- term benefits.

Blending practical advice with interesting facts about the hive, The Wisdom of Bees is a useful and entertaining guide for any manager looking to get the most out of his or her organization.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Leadership

240 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2010

About the author

Michael O’Malley is associate professor of history at George Mason University.

Reviews

[Natya Nauri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always love learning something that (seems) extraordinary in a simple way. This book provides a very down-to-earth way to gain insight about management, for instance, risk management, M&A, knowledge management, talent management, contingency planning, organization & job design, just name it...! ;D I also love the author's writing style. Written in a descriptive way, makes me feel like watching National Geographic or Animal Planet about bee behaviour. That gives the readers opportunities to reflect, to think deeper, without trying to impose the author's opinion. In short, this book is very recommended for business students to professionals.

[David Merrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to keep this short. Bees are much better at this than we are. We could learn a lot from their focus on the survival of the hive for the long term. One should keep in mind, the book is focused on European honeybee behavior. Africanized honeybee behavior is a little more like the behavior found in American corporations. Definitely an interesting read in conjunction with my reading of Killer Bees by Mark L.Winston.

[Reski Sululing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Buku pertama yang saya baca di tahun 2024. O’Malley berhasil memikat saya dengan cerita-cerita tentang bagaimana koloni lebah menjalani kehidupan mereka. Bagaimana mereka begitu amat terstruktur dan menjaga hirarki kehidupan, untuk mencapai tujuan yang sama. Saat membaca, saya merasa seperti menyaksikan langsung bagaimana lebah-lebah tersebut saling bahu-membahu untuk menjaga keberlangsungan ekosistem mereka.

Menariknya, kita sama-sama tahu bahwa koloni lebah dipimpin oleh seekor ratu lebah. Ratu lebah yang benar-benar menggambarkan sosok pemimpin, alpha female to the core. Ketika buku ini mencoba mengaitkan kepemimpinan lebah dan struktur organisasi manusia, buku ini seperti memberikan ruang bagi pembaca untuk bertanya apakah memang pemimpin yang cakap harus berdasarkan gender atau seksualitasnya? Atau kualitas bawaan? Sebab bagaimanapun, manusia memiliki kecenderungan mengaitkan beberapa pola yang mereka temui di alam bebas.

Buku ini ringan dan menarik untuk dibaca, apalagi untuk menambah sudut pandang bagaimana mengatur pola kebiasaan dan pentingnya memahami kolaborasi yang merupakan kunci utama kesuksesan mencapai tujuan dalam berkelompok.

[Jean William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on management and how to improve the work on ourselves and within our workspaces/companies. It always seems odd to me that we don't start learning about animal behavior and how we can replicate it early on in our career. We seem to have a desire to overcomplicate things.
Bees seem to have figured it all out and know how to work well with one another.
This book really has it all, from:
- contractors/free agents
- making sure there is a transition plan, if ever the leader is removed or leaves themselves from the organisation
- Upper management (the queen) doesn't micromanage.
This book also made me want to start bee keeping. I would love to see all the social interactions within the hive.

[Jaclyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more for nostalgia than anything else; a former boss gifted it to me while cleaning out her office after she gave her notice. So I kinda like thinking this was her way of telling me she believed in my capacity to become a leader someday. She gifted it to me in 2018, and I started reading it in 2021, when I DID become a manager. The lessons are certainly useful, and the honeybee metaphor apt. The writing was just a bit dry, and the content got a bit repetitive at times. The book includes 25 lessons, and given its length, I wish the author had just focused on fewer, or maybe found a way to make the bee metaphors a bit less repetitive.

[Oliver Partington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, bees are absolutely fascinating and I am firmly committed to having my own hive in the future!

The book is really well written and easy to digest, the link between bees and genuine lessons businesses and leaders can take from them isn’t strained at any point (I thought the link might get a bit tenuous).

I can’t say I learnt any new lessons that haven’t be pre-existing or in other business books, but this gave a refreshing new look at the same old lessons and built it around analogies that are engaging, easy to remember and useful in a practical setting.

[Amy Gressell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose to read this for a leadership class at work. The 25 lessons were broken down individually into chapters and were easily digestible. The charts and graphs about bee habits were a little too "sciencey" and a bit of a stretch into the leadership realm, but overall some good lessons within!

[Sarah Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good leadership book, but a little confusing and hard to follow in places. Reading from an Agile coaching perspective and I think this book has huge parallels in what we encourage our teams to achieve with plenty of lessons and anecdotes towards those goals.

[Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent story relating bees to organisations, and how flattening hierarchies can lead to better and quicker decision making on the edges where it matters most.

[Nawasandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tak bisa dipungkiri, O'Malley menulis buku ini dengan deskripsi yang mudah menarik pembaca. Pembaca disuguhi pengetahuan baru yang jarang, yaitu tentang perilaku koloni lebah. Rasa terkesima sontak muncul. Sesaat pembaca seperti sedang menjadi penonton acara TV di channel Discovery atau National Geographic yang mengupas tuntas tentang perilaku lebah.
Perlu diingat, manusia adalah 'animal symbolicum', perilaku manusia memiliki kecenderungan mencari pola atas fenomena-fenomena. Tak heran jika pembaca mungkin akan satu kata dengan O'Malley dalam perilakunys menganalogikan pola-perilaku lebah pada problem solving.

Problematika muncul, salah satunya ketika O'Malley harus berhadapan dengan fakta bahwa pimpinan koloni lebah adalah seekor ratu, berjenis kelamin betina. Perdebatan tentang gender dan stereotype gender dalam kaitannya dengan manajemen organisasi akan mencuat. Apakah leader musti perempuan? Apakah perempuan memiliki kualitas-kualitas bawaan sebagai leader yang lebih unggul daripada pria? Kualitas bawaan?? bukankah kita berbeda dengan binatang, kita tidak menerima kualitas-kualitas itu secara given? Bukankah kita memutuskan/memilih tindakan-tindakan dan perilaku kita? Bukankah manusia mempunyai akal dan kehendak bebas, sedangkan lebah tidak? Bukankah lebah berperilaku demikian karena naluri, apakah manusia cukup dengan naluri?

Seharusnya masih banyak pertanyaan-pertanyaan filosofis yang (pasti) akan muncul dalam pikiran pembaca. Namun bagi beberapa pembaca mungkin buku ini menarik karena disusun seperti buku "How To". Tak dapat dipungkiri, diluar sana memang tak sedikit manajer yang haus pengetahuan terapan yang praktis dan mudah diingat (apalagi dibantu analogi lebah).
Bagi khalayak pembaca yang lain, justru permasalahan dimulai pada saat analogi itu dibuat. Tapi saya yakin, O'Malley akan memenangkan pasar pembaca, karena tipe yang pertama jumlahnya sangat banyak.

Sekian.

[Terry]

I just heard O'Malley speak on this topic at my office today and now I can't wait to read his book. I've always been interested in organizational behavior and found his insights useful, but what really held my interest was the social behaviors of bees and the analogies that he draws from them. I don't know if there are any new ideas here, but this is so much more fun than my MBA class on organizational behavior was.

[James Larranaga · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a good book with helpful analogies for business and group collaborations. If you manage teams at work, you might find helpful ideas to bring to your team meetings.

Where would be be without bees?

[Robyn Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book!

[Lee Tyner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new in regard to the leadership side of the book. Seemed to look for ways to connect them in order to write a book.

[Jim Serger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the comparison of the hive vs the job-- the author did a super job at emphasizing the roles people play at work-- understanding those roles and the whole concept of the leader.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little book. There are lots we can learn from these beautiful creatures.

[Amelia Cushion · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only enjoyed the bits about bees to be honest.

[Rakhmania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice explanation the relationship about bee's hive and business (organization)