How bees empower their workers
If ever there was an empowered workforce, it is in the hive. Colonies must be decentralized for the same reasons why many companies want to be: organizations that pushdecision-making out into the field are more agile and responsive to changing circumstances. That is why Edward Whitacre Jr., the Chief Executive Officer at GM, is trying to push accountability for decisions out to his core executives and down to line managers. GM's early payback of loans is an indication that his approach seems to be working. As Mr. Whitacre continues to transform the plodding bureaucracy he inherited, he might consider the bees' recipe for effectively distributing authority that makes their organizational success possible. Bees have sound decision processes that minimize bias; consistent, compact, and exacting communications that direct action; excellent knowledge systems where data is recurrently assembled and disseminated, with the best information overwhelming the bad; superior measurement and feedback systems that directly connect external conditions to the operations of the colony; and competent, well-trained workers (yes, they train their workers). Empowerment in the hive works because the bees always know what is going on around them and are capable of responding. Moreover, for many decisions such as finding a new home, the bees are profoundly accountable for results: make the right decision, and they live; get it wrong, and they die.
