This was a very interesting book to read. After a long time, I got to see a new perspective on the aspect of teams and leadership. Siobhan used lovely analogy of bees and their behaviour to inform us about teams ans leadership in organizations.

Would be very useful to leaders and team members alike.

Siobhan McHale uses the group dynamics of bees to talk about bringing change to businesses and organizations.I found the premise intriguing when I read the description of the book and it definitely fulfilled my expectations and more. This book really stands out with the unusual premise and the numerous case studies that are included. It's definitely a great addition to any businesses' book shelf.

I follow Siobhan McHale on LinkedIn and have found her posts & comments on organization culture and change management to be insightful. This book packs some good concepts in simple language with many real-life business examples.

Her concept of ‘The Hive’ is inspired by how bees work together. They segregate themselves by roles focused on objectives and have a good group understanding and collaborate well. Austrian scientist Karl Von Frisch even discovered a waggle dance of bees to communicate location of food (for which he got the Nobel prize in 1973). The 9 laws of group dynamics outlined are - Patterns, Connectedness, Role, Multiple perspectives, Context, Embeddedness, Pattern blindness, Unintended consequences, Tipping point. Each of these is explained in detailed, and bees’ behaviours are used for analogies.

Siobhan points out that “a scary state of flux has replaced a slower and more comfortable rate of change, obliterating any sense of the certainty, stability, and familiarity that characterized earlier eras. Yet these threats to organizational success serve as a mere wake-up call for what lies ahead. The future will bring more complexity, instability, uncertainty, unpredictability, and unexpected consequences to our change efforts.”

The earlier operating models for companies included either Top-down or Social network based (with influencers propagating the way). We are now looking at organizations as ecosystems. There are a number of examples which are covered (both successes and failures in navigating change) - Dasani in UK, Airbus, Revlon, Fire Phone, Spotify, Ford, Crystal Pepsi, Samsung Galaxy Fold, Alitalia, Dyson hair dryer, Qatar 2019 World Athletics Championship, Queensland Health, Equifax, Volkswagen, Purdue Pharma, Toys R Us, Lego, ConvertKit, Shopify, Nike, SpaceX, Starbucks & others. There are a few examples of companies crafting specific initiatives – eg: Amazon "Two Pizza Operating model", 6-page proposals, instead of presentations, Day 1 philosophy; Apple "Experts Rule Operating Model"; Microsoft "Partnering Operating Model".

This book is conceptually sound. I liked the hive analogy, ecosystems operating model, the four step process for change, the need for group intelligence (other than IQ and EQ), change roles, and how companies need to plan for the long-term like marathons but in short sprints. The business stories are too sketchy and basic though. As a result, the inferences are simplistic – attributable to either following the hive philosophy or not. It feels like the complexity of marketplace dynamics is poorly understood or elaborated in the examples. Though the initial sections claim radical new thought, a lot of this has been in practice in many enterprises since some time. I would have also liked to see how coverage for innovation mindsets.

Overall, a good primer on navigating change with a lot of examples which should be studied in more detail.

My rating: 3.75 / 5..