This time of year there are bees everywhere: flowers, vegetable blossoms, and fruit trees. My brother keeps bees and I find these tiny yet powerful creatures fascinating. Thousands of them live together and share the work of the hive. They care for the eggs the queen lays, store up enough honey for the winter, and even make decisions. Social scientists study these amazing insects to learn about this hive decision making, hoping to apply the lessons to human group decision making. If bees can do consensus, perhaps humans can too.
Recently NPR interviewed Thomas Seeley, professor at Cornell and author of Honeybee Democracy. Professor Seeley provides a short description of how bees make decisions. When a hive gets too full it splits, half the bees follow the old queen and half stay behind to raise a new queen. Older bees scout out the surrounding area, bringing with them news of available sites. Then they do a waggle dance, showing others how to find these sites. The better the spot, the more they dance. Other bees, seeing the dance, go out to check out the spot, and bring back their report. Gradually by eliminating locations of less quality they choose one option and move in.
Sometimes groups depend on leaders or majority rule to make decisions without taking into consideration other perspectives in the group. Consensus provides another option for decision making which uses collaboration instead of competition. Notable aspects of consensus include:
• Consensus asks participation from each member, and is built on cooperation, respect for each member’s contribution, and disciplined speaking and listening.
• When stating levels of agreement to a proposal, consensus provides three to five options, 5 representing complete support, 3 stating the need for more information, 1 as blocking the process with 2 and 4 completing the spectrum.
• Consensus provides a time for discussion giving each person time to say why they placed themselves as they did. Groups discuss each concern then adapt the proposal to accommodate the concern, yet retain what excited others.
• In the event that a concern cannot be reconciled to other hopes for the proposal, the concern is recorded along with the decision made.
• Decisions are implemented when everyone, after discussion and adaptation, can at least live with the decision, placing themselves 3 or higher on the spectrum.
Consensus is not forcing all involved to think alike. Consensus provides a structure to hear the opinions of those involved, take the concerns into account before the decisions is made, and feed off of others excitement. This process does take considerably more time than voting or other decision making processes. However, when decisions are made quickly, those affected must be persuaded to buy in or the decision may never be carried out. Such persuasion takes time as well.
I want to share one more thing about bees. Since hives will kill unknown queens, bee keepers cautiously introduce them to the hive. To ensure the queens safety the keepers confine the queen in a small plastic cage with the only exit plugged with a hard candy. Gradually the queen works at the candy from one end and the worker bees from the other. When the candy is gone the queen emerges, now part of the hive. Discussing issues or working at problems as a group can be intimidating. However, people groups, as well as bee hives, build relationship through working together, and relationships strengthen the group. Consensus and other processes, like the plastic cage, provide structure and security for such difficult conversations to take place and, in turn, produce trust.
Sources:
Robert Krulwich, Nature's Secret: Why Honey Bees Are Better Politicians than Humans, on NPR's Morning Edition, http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2011/05/24/136391522/natures-secret-why-honey-bees-are-better-politicians-than-humans.
C.T. Butler and Amy Rothstein, On Conflict and Consensus: a handbook on Formal Consensus decisionmaking, Food Not Bombs Publishing, Portland, ME, 1991.
