What are the various themes that enable animals and insects to prosper in their constantly changing environment, and how can humans look at these themes to mirror their own actions and survive the current shift in the economy.


What can we learn from the animal kingdom?

In January 2009 the BBC screened a documentary titled: “One Million Heads, One Beautiful Mind”. While the themes were about how animals and insects prosper in their constantly changing environment, there are strong parallels to be drawn with how humans can survive a shift in a business market.

Swap roles within your organisation

Consider first the most abundant bird on the planet, the ‘Red Billed Quelea’. Like so many flocking birds they gather together for protection. The documentary showed a flock of young Quelea drinking at the edge of a water hole, where a Lanner Falcon could easily swoop and pick off a number of the birds. The Quelea reacted by retreating to the safety of nearby thorny bushes, but eventually their thirst drove a few of the braver birds back to the water, while the more timid in the flock sat in the bushes keeping watch. The next time the falcon attacked, the birds in the bushes announced his arrival, warning those at the water hole, so the falcon failed. Once the braver birds had quenched their thirst, they swapped roles with the lookouts so that the timid birds could also drink their fill. Quelea have a very flat management structure, no one bird is more important than another.

How many times in organisations are roles swapped so that a clear view of the bigger picture can be seen? How are mavericks treated in organisations? Are they embraced or seen as difficult people to manage? Do we tend to ignore the “more timid”, or spend time understanding what they can offer, so that they can contribute to overall success?

Act as one unit

Both ants and bees have been extensively studied and they share a similar organisational structure: with a queen at the head producing the future of the colony, the eggs. The colonies share similar mission statements: ‘protect the young - the future of our colony’. There are clearly defined roles: soldiers, workers and drones. Each understands their role, however each will pick up a different role if need be. There are robust communication systems, ants through the use of pheromones and bees with their waggle dance. Decisions are made collectively through the combined intelligence of the colony; a strong pheromone trail in an ant colony shows that many others have supported the decision. When a bee colony gets too big to support itself, it splits into two smaller groups, half the colony swarms to find an appropriate nesting site.

The documentary showed how a colony of Fire Ants dealt with an unforeseen danger against their existing nesting site. Not the unseen effects of lending to the sub prime market, but a tangible, physical threat to a nest located in a storm drain. As the waters rose, their nest was in danger of flooding, so the Queen, Eggs and Pupae were the first to be rescued, each being moved to higher ground - (probably best to think of these as the USP and continued existence of the business, rather than the CEO and board).

As the water rose further, it became clear that nearby safe ground was cut off by water, so the ants linked legs to form a floating platform, with the highest part of the floating ant island occupied by the Queen, Eggs and Pupae. Ants at the edges paddled to help move the island and as a landfall came close, pontoons of ants grew in that direction to speed their landing. No one ant was telling them to go that way, yet the strongest pontoon was supported and the weaker pontoon faded. While a very strong hierarchy exists within the ant colony, leadership in difficult times came from within the colony: individual ants tried different tactics and others then copied these successful tactics, and the colony survived.

What's your game?

So can humans display similar behaviour? The answer is yes; in fact behaviour such as this exists, you just need to observe someone playing a collaborative computer game on line to view it. Newer gamers learn from established gamers, but if a new gamer uses a successful strategy it will quickly be adopted by new and established gamers alike. It is this diversity of a swarm of gamers that allows them to be successful. Yet in the same way, fail to pull your weight or contribute and the host will bounce you out of the game. Maybe we have unlimited lives online, but not in business. So where does the leadership of ideas sit in your business? Do you just look to the people that were around in the last recession, or are you looking to the new gamers?

Move together

10 million Starlings in Rome were also shown in the documentary, swarming in a similar style to shoals of fish. Gulls looking for a meal dive-bombed the flock; the Starlings responded by opening a pathway through the flock that closed after the attacker had passed. A Peregrine Falcon picked up the attack, able to dive at 220 mph. The strategy for the Starlings this time was to stay together in close formation. At 220 mph the falcon would take out a number of Starlings, but would also do itself untold damage.

The Starlings achieve this movement by sharing a common goal: survival. Each bird keeps an eye on the seven birds nearest to it and each bird acts and reacts based on what others are doing. While a bird may share some of its neighbour’s contacts, they could have up to six other contacts. These connections help develop the distinctive ebb and flow of a flock of birds.

So, with a common goal and a keen eye on our colleagues, and ensuring we stay connected into other parts of our organisation, we can survive any threats that come at us. There may be casualties along the way, but a successful strategy will limit these.

Swarm intelligence

In 2009 ‘social not-working’ is the phrase to watch; it describes people spending time on social networking sites such as Facebook, instead of doing their job. It is a frightening fact that on average only 29% of our employees are energised and committed to work, 54% just show up and do what is expected, and 17% don’t even do that. This wastes some £37-£39 billion per annum in the UK. Sobering thoughts when we know that truly engaged employees are 8 times more productive and they demonstrate a 20% lower turnover rate (Gallup).

In the animal kingdom commitment is not in question and because survival is at stake it is driven by instincts that develop over time. In these difficult times we need to develop our own survival instincts, so perhaps we should take a closer look at:

“the wonderful appeal of swarm intelligence. Whether we're talking about ants, bees, pigeons, or caribou, the ingredients of smart group behaviour—decentralized control, response to local cues, simple rules of thumb—add up to a shrewd strategy to cope with complexity”.

(Source: Peter Miller-Swarm Theory-National Geographic-Published: July 2007)