The Future of Work: Collaborative colonies

In the grand scheme of things we haven’t been on the planet that long. In anthropological terms we are still hunter gatherers. If you have a fall out with a colleague you just wander off with your mates and start a new tribe.

Thanks to the agricultural revolution we have grown from about seven million people to seven billion. Walking away from the tribe is not so easy in the city or in an organisation where the culture is confrontational but the economic handcuffs are too appealing to take off.

Perhaps we should take a look around at some of our fellow animals who have passed the probationary period in terms of whether they will be a permanent feature on the planet. Ants come to mind. They have discovered over hundreds of millions of years that colonies which take a collaborative approach fair better than those that embrace an aggressive modus operandi. That been borne out by the absence of non-collaborating ant colonies today.

So leaders need to recognise this when setting the cultural tone. Those leaders that cultivate friction within their organisations are fighting nature. And nature doesn’t do losing.