I love honey bees. My other business is a honey farm and I have over six million of them flying around making honey.
Because of the waggle dance where the scout bees communicate to the hive where the best pickings are to be found everyone assumes that honey bees are seriously efficient in the way they operate but this is not true. They are not efficient but because they employ the explore, exploit trade-off they are effective.
When the scout bees return to the hive they show everyone where is the best place to go to get the maximum forage and so a bad (but efficient) leader would send all the bees (workers or employees) to that place to maximise return by exploiting the best solution to the immediate problem.
In a poorly run company he/ she would be rewarded for the productivity and efficiency of their team.
However, up to 20% of the bees ignore this instruction and do their own thing. If they had managers tasked with maximum productivity and efficiency in the way so many organisations work this would cause chaos. There would be written warnings and disciplinary hearings together with dismissals all over the place and this is the way so many so called efficient, productive organisations work. Compliance in order to maximise return.
Fortunately honey bees (and some other animals) do not have managers and don’t need them. They are far more advanced than us in the way they run their organisation. The bees who ignore the instruction explore. It’s a trade-off. Short term efficiency and productivity for long term survival.
We can learn from this by not dedicating all of our resources or time to maximising (exploiting) the present. Instead, dedicate time and resources to exploring. The trade-off is that you won’t maximise the present and you may even waste time, money and resources going down some roads that lead to nowhere. But do it well and consistently and you will discover the next big thing that guarantees your future whilst your competitors whither on the vine.
Don’t just exploit, explore. Follow the bee.
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