“Honey bees are brilliant at collective decision making”, according to biologist Thomas B. Seeley (2010) on the Harvard Business Review Blog. All leaders can learn from the way bees communicate, debate and decide. How to mobilise all available knowledge, expertise, insights, views and opinions within the organisation in the process of choosing the right direction. This is all about strategy in its highest form. The bees seem to be masters in this.

Seeley lines out the next crucial factors for optimal decision making:

• Remind the group’s members of their shared interests and foster mutual respect, so they work together productively.
• Explore diverse solutions to the problem, to maximise the group’s likelihood of uncovering an excellent option.
• Aggregate the group’s knowledge through a frank debate.
• Minimize the leader’s influence on the group’s thinking.
• Balance interdependence (information sharing) and independence (absence of peer pressure) among the group’s members.