We set out to measure things, to give us a sense of achievement, to allocate priorities, and simply to keep score as we proceed. It is an engineering perspective.

We do not have any way of objectively measuring how we feel, but how we feel is what drives our behaviour.

This would not matter if we all perceived the world objectively, but we don’t. We observe the world through the complex frosted window of our experience, context, opinions, and did we get our coffee this morning.

So, how do we dig away at this problem, and it is a problem, simply because we use objective means to make subjective decisions, and it sucks.

We ask better questions, and we ask those questions from as wide a variety of perspectives as we can. We must ask those better questions, and experiment, test stuff, be allowed to fail, as in the outliers you will find the unexpected. However, you must also expect the unexpected, you just cannot predict where it will be.

Bees, amazing insects that they are, have the process nailed. They have a behavioural characteristic scientists call the ‘Waggle dance’, which is a communication medium that leads others to the source of nectar. Bees must find nectar, that is the job on which their lives rely.

Depending on variables like the weather, location, season, and others, a percentage of bees, 10 – 20% ignore the waggle dance, and go off in a different direction. When they find a new source, they start the ‘waggle dance’ to attract other bees to that new source, thus keeping the hive healthy and well fed.

This is experimentation, sacrificing a small part of the current returns to build for the future.

As we consider how to best allocate our available resources, we can learn from bees.

 

Bees in blogs