The World needs more Bees! - Building Healthier Organisational Innovation Ecosystems

Just like in nature where the bee population is of concern, the business world has an equal challenge. It does not unlock sufficiently collaborative cross-pollinating behaviours (aka Systems Thinking) to instigate innovation. There are a number of neurological reasons why cross-pollinators are needed in organisations.

1. As a consultant I have heard many CEOs and Directors express their frustrations with silo working, wishing people would collaborate more readily with others across departments and beyond organisational boundaries. But what if human neurology encourages most people to focus on detail, while some people prefer the bigger picture.

This is exactly the case. Every organisation needs people who enjoy working with detail and people who enjoy working on the bigger picture. The latter are the organisation's systems thinkers who can often be found at the top of the organisation or in Senior Technical roles. Rather than or as well as managing people, the System Thinkers role is that of organisational 'bee', connecting the dots and looking after the wider organisational ecosystem.

The reality is that people who enjoy working with detail actually find it very hard to think 'bigger' and 'wider', while the reverse is also true.

2. Cross-pollination is not only required to connect people and ideas, but is also helpful in connecting the lessons from the past with lessons for the future. Just like some people prefer detail versus other preferring the bigger picture, some people are naturally more past-focussed while others prefer to stick their energy into the future.

Here too, asking a past-person to be a future-person or vice versa, can actually have a significant impact on a person's happiness and well-being. It can also be noted that the past-person finds change more challenging and as such often less resilient than the future-person, as understandably the future-person is more likely to scan ahead for opportunities and challenges. Only very few people (1 in 10) can access both past and future equally, though often they still have a preference.

The same old question applies? Is this about nature or nurture? My cop-out answer is 'probably a bit of both'.

So if we actually truly acknowledge people's strengths and neurological preferences, and such acknowledge that silo working is not an unusual human trade, we can see why organisational 'bees' are so important in building an efficient, collaborative and innovative organisational ecosystem.

My next blog will build on this notion and explore the impact of valuing people's preferences differently in traditional hierarchical organisations.