The Ecosystem

I am the odd one out when going to a toastmasters club for my expectations extend far greater than simply fulfilling the "Toastmasters Promise", engaging in club activity, being part of a low-level hierarchical structure and learning the very basics of communication and leadership.  When I attend my college toastmasters club, it is not the club but the eco-system which is my chief fascination - and it is this more complex version of the system which becomes central to both my offline ecosystem at my campus club and the online systems such as here at beBee.

The ecosystem that readily comes to mind on beHee is that of the honeybee ecosystem. For sure while I am here I am more than happy to learn from that but I learn is not a channeling of ideas, it is all about emergence and the evolution of my learning - in which my mind - spirit - body are translated into MEANING - SERVICE - BEING

The good news is that there are many brilliant people who have done absolutely amazing work on the ecosystem of bee's.  Among them is a book edited by James Devillers. 

This book provides information about bee organization and life that is ample information for even the least imaginative individual among us.  It is a strange sight to see a honeybee hooked up with an RFID module and even stranger seeing a honeybee with a transponder on its back, but this is what makes this particular book so wonderful - because it is the PUREST BS - and that purity is the most important type of BS in this world which of course is BEE SCIENCE.  We are all very much used to the impure form of BS which is non-scientific human business studies.  It studies the organizational behaviour of bee's and it provides a compelling scientific analysis of the bee ecosystem.  In the hands of entrepreneurs with an ability to abstract at a high level, this can lead to creating extraordinary market mind - but this not the safest path, the safest path is doing what the more typical club members are most likely to do, and that is to engage in metaphors that meet the standards of an average human resources retreat, and maybe that is why HR functions usually advocate this system.

The other part that automatically connects me with bee thinking is in our shared appreciation of nature's favourite shape, which is the hexagon.  Here the thinking also is shared with those who articulate their appreciation the properties of water.  We do not need to mirror the bee hive in order to operate at a high level of abstraction.  A company that names itself Hexagon has done an absolute marvelous job in this regard with their messaging.  The CEO of Hexagon is Ola Rollén

At the simplest level of organizational thinking his company could have used its HEXAGON name and created very simplistic marketing viewpoints about hexagon.  Instead they demonstrated high abstractive ability and instead focused on the idea that "shape matters".  Once one see's the video of what that concept means, it shows how we do not fixate over the object of hexagon but expand the meaning of shape, of which the Hexagon is nature's choice.

As an organization, HEXAGON do not simply stop at the level of agency marketing.  Instead they have branched out their communication to a Hexagon Global Network - a system of thought that now supports billions of Euro's of business.  The conference they produce does not have a hexagon logo but the letters HxGN - this is not academicians talking about the hexagon, this is entrepreneurial spirit of the highest order that throughly understands its own ecosystems within each operating domain - and these hives of complexity are incredible.

If my learning journey means anything to me then I appreciate the stuff that exists beyond the gloss and showmanship, but the way this organization knows its own ecosystem and harnesses the information to set their minds with a vision which is not only highly compelling but it is mind-blowingly brilliant in both its economic results but also it's executive mind.

This organization flies under the radar unrecognized by probably the majority of people, but it is a fascinating reality.  Appreciation for this company does not mean that I have set my bar to emulate or imitate them - this is only an example of thinking and the relationship of thinking to create an ecosystem that is enormous and mind-blowing.   We do not need to operate at this level but we can appreciate the sophistication at this level. 

In the same way we probably would not conceive the capability discussed inside HxGN, we do not often conceive at the most basic level of organization.  For me that most basic level of organization exists in the ecosystem that surrounds my college toastmasters club.  The entire ecosystem of an educational establishment supports all the facets that can emerge in a much more complex level of organization as with the people who run the HxGN thinktank.  This is where the idea of fractals is it's most potent, and the college ecosystem is just a simpler fractal of much more complex organizational patterns.

THE HEXAGON AS A SHAPE

As a shape, beyond the "shape matters" philosophy created by the corporation called HEXAGON, what I love about hexagon as purely a shape is that goes beyond the vertical discussions of hierarchy or the horizontal discussions of flat organizational proponents.  In my own club, the Club President runs an executive team with six functional areas . What the hexagon provides is for each executive to be their own function but a sum of the other five functions including the role of the President.  That is the only means to keep functional organization honest and back in alignment with the entrepreneurial startup foundation, where everybody is doing a bit of everything.  That there is so much failure in organizational startups is evidence that even the best thinking does not guarantee survival of the organization. 

The club I belong to which was founded by Ruben Burga is now entering its fourth year of existence.  When any startup reaches its fifth year of business it has actually beaten organizational mortality odds.  The next couple of years will determine whether Ruben's initial work is honoured or lost - and it is young students who will either feel that there is meaning to being a part of this ecosystem or whether this club is simply a stepping stone as they follow the gross road traveled and not the least traveled.   I am not interested in a dime a dozen club or what our respective level of competition is with other clubs - I am interested in life and its accompanying eco-system.  From this level of abstraction, I can learn lots from the leadership hive, the intelligence in the honey and the life that is a bee.  It is not a one-for-one extrapolation, it is a learning journey and this as I always keep saying is MY learning journey.  What is yours?

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