I recently had the pleasure of receiving an advanced copy of Survival of The Hive: 7 Leadership Lessons from a Beehive by Deborah Mackin and Matthew Harrington. After reading through the book a couple times, it reminded me fondly of reading Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson during graduate school.
SOTH (Survival of the Hive) takes us through, according to the authors, the “macro- and micro-responsibilities of the queen bee and her relationship to a hive. Each chapter explores how the beehive functions through the characters of Zync, a queen-in-waiting, and her fellow bees. Using the bee colony as an allegory to illustrate leadership in an organized community, we provide a working illustration of cultural complexity, leadership clarity and the importance of trust as a foundation of excellence.
What I enjoyed most about the book is how each chapter weaves in discussion questions to inspire leadership groups to study together, and how the seven leadership lessons are weaved through the beehive concept to clearly show how important the principles in the book are to effective leadership.
Some discussion questions that the chapters in the book discuss through the SOTH beehive story include:
1. What does survival of the hive mean for our organization?
2. How does our leadership at various levels within the organization demonstrate the vital P-Factors of Leadership as illustrated in the beehive story?
3. Is there a “shared load” value system in place? Do we make it clear that mediocre or uncommitted behavior is not acceptable?
Download a free chapter of Survival of the Hive here
