Honeybee democracy and what we’re learning about group decision-making
Research in the past decade from fields of Sociobiology and Neurobiology shows bee colonies and group decision-making in humans share many characteristics. Both can make effective decisions without a single leader; use of aggregate knowledge is one of the most powerful tools available to the group.
Sadly many of our organisations are not designed structurally for this kind of decision-making. What if our natural, productive state is collaborative? What if we thrive through sharing information & participating in decision-making?
What if our organisations were designed more like ecosystems? What if we relied more on our collective wisdom to shape our decisions? Would we be more effective? Would it lead to better outcomes for our institutions and communities?
The Loomio team has spent over five years considering these questions with friends worldwide. They’ve used this insight to design software to make it easy for anyone, anywhere, to participate in decisions that affect their lives.
In this talk Mary O'Keeffe will share the Loomio teams experiences and how decision-making practice affects organisations, what they’ve learned from customers about effective group decision-making in teams and share practical ways to introduce collective decision-making in your team.