Risk & Business Magazine General Insurance Services Magazine | Page 23

PUBLIC SPEAKING
book, Teeming: How Superorganisms Work
to Build Infinite Wealth in a Finite World
(and Your Company Can Too), explores
nature’s proven organizing strategies and
how we can use them to design work that
works for us.
Ants and honeybees have worked together
for tens of millions of years, innovating,
responding quickly and effectively to
change, compounding value from one
generation to the next. How do they do it?
IT’S SIMPLE: EVERY
INDIVIDUAL JUST DOES
WHAT IT THINKS BEST
FROM MOMENT TO
MOMENT, WORKING
IN SMALL, MODULAR
TEAMS, WITHOUT ORG
CHARTS, MEETINGS,
OR MANAGERS. NO
INDIVIDUAL HAS THE
WHOLE PICTURE.
STRATEGY JUST
HAPPENS ORGANICALLY,
THROUGH SMALL,
IMPERFECT, FREQUENT
DECISIONS, AND
COURSE CORRECTION IS
CONSTANT.
These organizations are unified by a
powerful shared purpose–the success of
future generations. In this way, nature’s
teams thrive on change, using far less
computing power and zero organizational
drag.
This way of scaling up feels natural to
us as well. Creativity and collaboration
are basic human nature. We love to
help others, and we love to make things
of lasting significance, and we love to
do it with people we like. We really are
designed to adapt and collaborate–but
resistance comes when change is imposed
on us and our responses are dictated. The
most important thing is that we like to do
things our way.
WHAT WOULD THIS LOOK LIKE IN A
COMPANY?
Shift action away from top-down decree
and move it to the local interactions
of individuals in teams. There is no
fixed hierarchy; no one at the top sets a
course. Each employee is guided by the
organization’s purpose and their own
judgment. Individuals take personal
responsibility for planning and executing
their work, and the rights and resources
for doing so go to those who actually need
them. Change is smooth, response is agile.
Buurtzorg, a Dutch nonprofit in-home
nursing care organization, is one example.
They work in teams of a dozen nurses,
each serving about 50 patients in a specific
neighborhood. Each team does everything
that would normally be handled by a
centralized administration. In just seven
short years, Buurtzorg exploded to 14,000
nurses as patients and caregivers jumped
ship from their traditional providers.
Today, Buurtzorg is a stunning financial
success. An Ernst & Young study reported
“outrageously positive” results for patients.
If all home care were done this way, the
Netherlands would save close to 2 billion
euros a year. Scaled to the US population,
that’s $49 billion saved every year!
This self-organizing approach scales
well. Buurtzorg operates the same way
as it did with a few hundred nurses. For
20 years, global energy provider Applied
Energy Services (AES) ran a massive
40,000-employee organization entirely
with self-managed teams of 15 to 20
people. And they are virtually meeting free,
at every level. These teams work together
closely for years. Free riders and bullies find
themselves cut out of the work, but good
people stay–they like being part of a high-
performance team.
How do you achieve this in your own
organization? Start by building an
adventurous culture that embraces
change as a source of inspiration. Help
people discover their passions. Focus on
their moonshot dreams and watch as
engagement goes through the roof. Engaged
employees are 44 percent more productive
than satisfied ones, and inspired employees
produce nearly 125 percent more!
NATURES WAY
Next, actively nurture a culture of
experimentation and diversity. Without
diversity and a willingness to experiment
and fail, evolution can’t happen. When
change comes, you’ll be left high and dry.
Wherever possible, operate in small,
modular, mutually accountable, and self-
organizing teams of diverse, autonomous
individuals. General Stanley McChrystal
did it this way in the Iraq war with
astonishing results. This is the way we like
to work, and it’s the way we work best!
Together, personal freedom, shared
purpose, and mutual accountability
build social capital–the currency that
makes our collaborative efforts possible.
Engagement grows, and with it initiative,
innovation, and execution. By mimicking
nature’s successes, we can transform our
management-heavy corporate machines
into living things that thrive on change,
with greater engagement, innovation, and
agility. When we work with our nature,
scaling up just comes naturally!
DRTAMSIN.COM
Tamsin Woolley-Barker is an Evolutionary
Biologist and Biomimicry pioneer. Her
social genetic work on Ethiopian baboons
is part of the longest-running and most
complete study of any wild primate
population to date. Tamsin serves as an
independent consultant for a Fortune 100
clientele and is an Adjunct Professor at
Arizona State University's new Biomimicry
Center. She lives in San Diego, CA.
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