One of the most important steps I took in my four decades as an engineer was to become a beekeeper. My role at AT&T is to lead a team of engineers who introduce new technologies, so many of the dynamics of beekeeping are also relevant to leading innovation teams.
Bees are pollinators and help produce up to one in three bites of food for humans. Honey bees achieve this through a distinct dominance structure in which the queen determines the characteristics and culture of her hive, but wisely relies on the advice of an older generation of worker bees – she acts as a board of directors that guides the rank and file members of the colony.
Beekeeping distills the key tools you need to manage innovation cycles: how to support growth to new levels of scale, how to leverage team strengths and development, and the importance of establishing a culture of enthusiasm. But perhaps more unexpectedly than anything, you’ll learn not to focus too much on the honey, but instead to focus primarily on building the best bee box.
The box is your organization
Why is the box the North Star? Why not the honey? Well, if you only think about the honey and don’t provide for future crops and talent pools, the hive would have no food reserves and could suffer massive churn. If you don’t increase the size of the box when it’s about 80% full, half of your bees will leave it and start a new hive because they think the job is done. If you make it too big, they’ll exhaust themselves. We learn six important lessons about innovation when we prioritize the box over the honey.
- Promote and develop talent: When your talent has mastered 80% of their role, consider promoting them and letting someone else take over their old role. They have shown that they can succeed in your organization. And You want to make it clear that your environment is providing ongoing insights. Bees naturally want to swarm. That’s how they grow. But amazingly, once the nectar starts, the bees don’t swarm. That’s because they have a really hard job and they’re totally focused on it.
- Framework for success: Better-equipped bees find better honey. We know that bees will build extra comb in any space larger than 3/8 of an inch. They will also fill any space smaller than 1/4 of an inch with propolis (their antifungal hive building material). That’s why we keep their “bee spaces” between 3/8 of an inch and 1/4 of an inch. In a company, your innovators need space to refine their role, but they also need clear responsibilities and goals – even if the goals are fluid.
- Focus on continuous learning: A bee’s strengths change over time. They excel at making wax until they are about eight weeks old, and then they move on to new tasks. Bees are quick learners and can take on multiple roles in their lifetime, from nurse and guard work to foraging. Each of these roles is important, and bees advance through these positions as they age. The lesson? Managers should consider these changing strengths when assigning roles and be aware of when employees are ready for advancement.
- Focus on creating lasting value: Just as focusing on the honey can keep you from thinking long-term about the hive, overemphasis on current products can hinder breakthrough innovation. For example, solving internet load problems in 1994 led to high-speed internet and the smartphone revolution. If we had focused too much on the benefits of Wi-Fi alone (the current honey), we would have missed the need for seamless connectivity between Wi-Fi, cellular, and satellite networks. This convergence led to the development of fiber optic technology, which is now the backbone of high-performance communications networks. An entrepreneurial mindset is critical here. We invent the future when we push the boundaries of the present and challenge the status quo. Everyone’s efforts should align with the broader goals of the organization and be focused on creating lasting value.
- Always have a backup beekeeper: Consistency is key when checking your hive. I do this every few weeks. Always keep a backup beekeeper (or department head) to ensure stable management, because innovation requires a continuous and steady hand. While the queen leads, the department heads, much like the older worker bees, are vital to leadership. When launching a new innovation, these older staff play a critical role in two phases. First, they test your idea, assessing its potential, economics, supply chain support, infrastructure needs, schedule, operational impact, and ability to change lives. Once the idea passes this assessment, these leaders are essential to mobilizing the team and driving implementation of the innovation.
- Promote a culture of enthusiasm: When bees bring nectar back to the hive, they must sell it to the other bees. The attention their nectar gets depends on the enthusiasm with which they present it. Your team should feel safe to innovate, to act boldly, and to shout, “I have an idea!” even if it turns out to be wrong. In an incubation environment, there should be no fear of “false news”—just buzzing bees focused on driving innovation that contributes to shared success. This means fostering a culture where everyone is excited about their bold ideas, and where taking smart risks and failing fast are part of a larger strategy aimed at creating long-term value and sustainability. This goes beyond the “fail early” mentality; sometimes a truly breakthrough idea needs extra space to develop. The key is to create an atmosphere where the answer is “how could we do this better if we did it again?” rather than causing embarrassment.
As with many things in life, focusing too much on the immediate goal (treasure) does not lead to long-term success. Instead, sound architecture and mindful system-level management will produce lasting results.
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