A Near Accident Presents an Opportunity to Learn About Bee Behaviour
Also, considerations about personal coaching, approaching life's problems by applying less pressure and one key characteristic that sets open-minded people apart.
How a traffic mishap turned into a public education about bees
When a driver swerved to avoid a deer on a rural road, residents of midwestern Ontario learned a lot about bees.
The incident happened this past week near the town of Burlington. A beekeeper who was towing a trailer with about five million bees in hives almost hit the deer on a rural road around seven in the morning. As he turned the steering wheel and applied the brakes, some of the hives in his open trailer toppled over and released a cloud of bees all over the area.
When local police arrived, they called about a dozen beekeepers from surrounding communities to help with the cleanup.
One of them, Michael Barber, received the call and hurried to the scene with his protective equipment. When he arrived, he found the driver of the truck desperately trying to get the hives upright. The driver felt badly about the accident and had already been stung about a hundred times by angry bees.
What stood out for me in the story were all the interesting things about bee behaviour that a reporter with Guelph Today gathered from talking with insect rescuer Barber, who seems to have a knack for explaining things in a vivid way.
Here are some of his comments from the story:
“On a nectar flow, a good portion of the bees would be outside of the hive,” said Barber. The difference here was that the bees were thrown out of their hives, he said. They were trying to find their hive, their family and “these bees were looking for someone to blame.”
As the hives were gradually placed back on the trailer, the cloud of bees soon found their homes.
“... as everything was collected that cloud of angry bees kind of just descended on those boxes. And it was just like this weird silence. You were just so used to the buzz, and then all of a sudden it was gone,” Barber said.
The beekeeper explained that forage bees are accustomed to being away from the hive, so older bees are the ones usually upset about losing their place:
“So mostly the older bees [were the ones] that flew up in the panic because the older bees are the ones that are going to defend the hive so I think the brood and the queens are more than likely still in the hives,” he said.
Once the situation was under control a few hours later, the beekeepers on the scene set up catch hives for the foragers that had wondered off. They explained that sometimes those bees will spend a night in a flower and then return to a hive in the morning.
“Just like teenagers, they go out and they don't know how long they've been partying on nectar and mead,” said Barber.
That line made me laugh.
During the growing season, farmers contract beekeepers to bring the insects to their properties to pollinate plants grown for food. The driver of the truck was returning the bees to their home base after one of these projects.
Santana Bellantoni was the reporter who wrote the story for Guelph Today. I'm sure when she was called out to the scene of the crash, she didn't expect to gather such colourful comments and relay so much info about bee behaviour. The mishap turned out to be an interesting story. I appreciated reading it. Here’s the link.
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A word about personal coaching
For the last five years, I’ve been working as an occasional coach for people in the business world. It’s a service I love to provide, because I myself benefitted from the support of some incredible mentors when I was working in a large company. I have always wanted to give back, to help others who might need a confidant, a person who they can turn to for meaningful conversations, conversations that stimulate personal growth. Coaching is all about unlocking our inner potential to maximize performance, whether it be at work or at home. Frequently, ingrained beliefs get in the way of our performance; they become obstacles to moving forward. Who hasn’t had doubts, self-limiting thoughts, an unwillingness to take a step forward because what lies ahead may be uncomfortable? Change can be painful sometimes, but without struggling through that interference to progress, we don’t move forward.
It has occurred to me that in recent times our reliance on technology has become an interference to personal growth. So many job these days are dependent on systems, and I’m beginning to suspect that lots of employees see their growth merely in terms of mastering a system; and lots of managers see their roles merely as hiring and training people to work the systems. We are so dependent on systems that we blame them when we can’t help a customer with an issue that does not fit the algorithm. In fact, I believe we have developed such an over-reliance on systems that we have consequently stifled our independent thinking skills, creativity and communication abilities. We have created obstacles to seeing the bigger picture, to growing into more impactful contributors to an organization’s success and making a more positive impact on the world.
Leaders have an important role to play in this situation. Sir John Whitmore, who wrote the book Coaching for Performance, makes this point about the responsibility of management towards the promotion of personal growth:
“Shortage of time and excess of fear drive us into command and control, while the quality of work and the need for development demand coaching.”
This is so true.
Today, too many leaders work from a “command and control” stylebook. This trickles down to front line workers. Good managers who don’t pretend to have all the answers and see their roles as team builders and developers of leaders take the time to ask their subordinates open-ended questions that encourage their employees to think for themselves, to find new possibilities, to grow collaboratively. The old Socratic dialogue still has a place in the business world because it changes our perspective and helps people learn through personal experiences. It stimulates innovation and creativity.
Unfortunately in many places of work, coaching is sidelined by the short-term demands of the business. Employees, meanwhile, crave training and development opportunities. Work satisfaction suffers. Performance also suffers.
Customers are sometimes fed up with systems and long for quality human interactions. While technological progress has been positive in many ways, the downside is that people too often become data sets when they really need to be treated as individuals.
If you are frustrated at work and can’t find a mentor or coaching partner in your organization, seek one outside your organization, but find someone to talk to.
To think through new opportunities and develop new perspectives, plot out your development, or just find a better sense of purpose or control, consider having conversations with a coach who is right for you. We can all use some coaching. We owe it to ourselves to carve out some time for some good-quality thinking. It will make a world of difference.
The way open-minded people respond to anomalies sets them apart from close-minded folks
Author and podcaster Shane Parrish of Farnam Street has given a lot of thought to how we think. Here’s something that he wrote recently that resonates with me:
“How you respond to anomalies is a good indicator of your open-mindedness. Anomalies are like a glitch in the matrix. You can identify these moments when you find something surprising, missing, or strange. Anomalies indicate the world doesn’t work the way you thought it did. These moments can be worth their weight in gold if you pay attention. Closed-minded people tend to ignore or gloss over anomalies. Open-minded people want to dive in and understand. Of course, diving in is hard as it may require you to discard your ideas and beliefs.”
I take this definition into consideration when I think about my own shortcomings, and also those of those workers who have been conditioned to accept system glitches and feel they can’t do anything about them.
We can all do better.
Shane’s new book, Clear Thinking, will be published next month.
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Aldous Huxley on doing things “lightly.”
Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, thought deeply about the role of technology in our lives. He also wrote philosophically about living in general. A citation from another book, Island, captured my attention this week because it provides what I think is very good advice for coping with the ups and downs of life.
“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly, child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you are feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.
I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humourless little prig. Lightly, lightly — it’s the best advice ever given me. When it comes to dying, even. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic. No rhetoric, no tremolos, no self conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of Christ or Little Nell. And of course, no theology, no metaphysics. Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light.
So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly, my darling, on tiptoes and no luggage, not even a sponge bag, completely unencumbered.”
To often we are weighed down by the troubles in our lives, by worry and anxiety, and maybe that weight does get in our way. I find this quote very useful and will try to think about it when I feel the walls closing in.
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Sketch corner
This is St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Fergus, Ontario. Since 1862, it has been the religious centre for the thousands of people of Scottish origin who settled in this town in midwestern Ontario. It was designed by David Murray, an architect from the nearby city of Guelph, and built with stone quarried in the area. The style is Gothic Revival, with a high-pitched roof, spire and large buttresses.
Thanks for reading Zanepost. Feedback is always welcome. If you have any subject ideas you’d like me to explore, let me know by leaving a comment.
-Renato Zane
The Aldous Huxley essay was stellar to me. Very wise-"go lightly' is the best advice for me. Without the usual internal eye-rolling. Like "control what you can control"-really? Jingoism at it's utter worst. It has also been many years since I read "Brave New World."