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> no organizational structure exists which guarantees optimal outcomes

I like the structure of bee colonies.

The queen controls the temperament, the workers control the queen and adjust the rate of growth or contraction. Periodically workers replace her with one her of daughters (via regicide).

I'm not sure what the takeaway here is though, as I don't like the idea of a monarchy or of communism.



Hmm, how insightful.

Let’s dig into this.

- Queen stops producing workers and is replaced by workers (regicide) or replaced by beekeepers (ie. shareholders)

- Bees due to disease or other calamity don’t provide enough honey for their shareholders and they lose their hive and possibly life more than likely

I’d prefer not to lose my life if I don’t produce at work if workers or shareholders aren’t happy


Kinda strange which parts you decided to view as metaphorical and transplant, such as shareholders, and which you decided we're integral to the idea and needed to stay, such as the death of hive members.

I think there might actually be some interesting things to consider if a hive-like approach was used for a business, but I'm not sure your assessment really gets to the heart of it.

In some ways, it's kind of like a co-op.


The really interesting part would be when winter hits and the Queen stops producing workers to downscale the hive (i.e. mass layoffs), then the insane period in spring where mass hiring starts...

Certainly a fun idea to play with


Well…

First, its not like bees get to negotiate their salaries and seek employment elsewhere.

Secondly, at scale you have to consider large beekeeping operations or even small ones which all have…shareholders.

So either the co-op needs to take into consideration societal and personal needs (ie. crime, health, housing) or your comparison needs to be rooted in basic economics (ie. supply, demand, labor markets).

Which is what the OP meant by “monarchy or communism” because fundamentally bee societies are more akin to government than business.

BUT, lets ask the bees what they think. I’m sure they’d prefer modern Westernized human employment over a labor camp like existence ;)


> First, it’s not like bees get to negotiate their salaries and seek employment elsewhere.

They switch hives by accident, the beekeeper can cause it (to beef up a weak colony or by accident) and sometimes they do it intentionally, the males in particular.


> I’d prefer not to lose my life

I'm not sure why you jump to this extreme. Being removed from your job sounds about right.


I meant a human organizational structure.




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