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Lessons from the Hive: The Buzz on Surviving and Thriving in an Ever-Changing Workplace
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Sales rank 883,559
Customers rating (based on 14 reviews)
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Going through a company merger or buy-out creates new challenges for managers and employees alike, but this unique business fable offers real-world advice for coping and even prospering. Based on the true story of a candle-making company in New England, Lessons from the Hive is actually a fictionalized look inside an organization, Bee Natural, Inc., as it deals with inevitable changes after its purchase by a consumer-products conglomerate. Using a week-in-the-life approach, five major players in the organization are profiled, ranging from the recently installed tough CEO to a brand-new junior employee. The main character is a seasoned director of marketing who must face her own personal struggles with changes both at work and at home. Fast paced and entertaining, Decker’s story parable is populated with likable, realistic characters who portray the tribulations and eventual success of a company enduring organizational change. Readers will learn: • More positive ways of looking at changes within an organization • Less confrontational ways of dealing with conflicts at work • How to deal with fears of the unknown in a changing business environment • The importance of establishing trust in the workplace • How to deal with conflicting interpersonal relationships in a professional manner Well experienced in organizational development, training, and human resources management through his extensive business publishing background, Decker uses this business fable to demonstrate that trust is a stronger force than fear and that organizational change can actually result in career opportunities rather than career demise. Anyone involved in dealing with personal and professional transformation (and who isn’t?) will find comfort in this delightful tale of a company dealing with the challenge of reinventing itself.
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| Publisher | Kaplan Business | | Release date | 11/2004 | | Availability | | | Edition | Hardcover |
| | List price | $16.95 | | Our price | n/a | | Used price | from $2.6 |
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"Getting" Organization Change
Decker's story is novel quality, for the characters become very real, making the issues and principles of effective organization change truly understandable. Any organization about to launch a significant change should distribute this book widely!
Brad Smart
 Great Conflict Resolution Lessons
In particular, the lessons you can learn about identifying and resolving conflicts are absolutely priceless. This and Corporate Canaries are MUST buys if you are a manager in any sort of capacity!
The story is everything
For books like this to work, they have to have both an engaging storyline and real-world characters. This book has both, and I found myself re-learning a lot about dealing with change, managing difficult people, and understanding how different types of people have different styles of working. The group discussion questions in the back are particularly useful. I will probably suggest that my whole department get copies and read it together. There are some on my team who need a little coaching, and this is a very non-threatening way to deal with difficult issues. Great job!
Lessons from the Hive
Charles Decker is vice president of an electronic publishing company, does work with business publishing initiatives, and has coauthored Beans: Four Principles for Running a Business in Good Times or Bad. Lessons from the Hive is about a fictionalized organization that is reinventing itself and was created to teach positive ways of viewing changes in an organization, how to deal with fears of the unknown, the importance of trust, and how to deal with conflicting interpersonal relationships. It is of the business-fable genre that uses a week-in the-life approach for five players in an organization including a recently installed CEO, a newly hired employee, and a seasoned director of marketing with personal struggles at home and at work. The junior change agent uses mantras many people call clichés such as Happiness is a choice; Inspire yourself, others will follow; Vanity is not a team sport; Enthusiasm will take you 90 percent of the way; and Change your thinking, change your life. This book can be used in classrooms and in businesses. Many people learn better by stories and examples than by other methods. This is a brief but powerful message. There are questions at the back of the book to assist reflection about each chapter.
Not just another business book
If you think you have read every single business book that you need to read, reconsider this one. I heard the author speak at an event in Newark recently and was impressed with his assessment of the difficulties associated with people with undiagnosed depression. The characters are so three dimensional that you'll think you know most of them. This is like a "Desperate Housewives" in cubicle-land, and it totally works.
My own boss is a little like the damaged main character, and I put this book on her desk anonymously. I saw her carrying it around for a few days and then at our department meeting last Monday she told people we should all read it because it had some excellent advice. I really thought she was too far gone but this book seems to have changed her. I hope it's for good.
Even if not, the book is a fun read that I think just about anybody will get a kick out of.
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