Philip Atkinson is the author of " Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons from a Busy Beehive" and founder of Hive Logic, a consultancy that draws powerful leadership insights from the world of beekeeping. In this interview, he shares how his passion for bees transformed into a unique approach to organisational development and leadership coaching tool.
Q: Philip, your book offers a fascinating perspective on leadership through beekeeping. What first sparked your passion for bees?
Philip: Everyone has a bee story, and mine begins with my great-uncle Jack, who was a beekeeper. When I was a tiny kid, he'd turn up and leave a jar of honey on our doorstep. It just fascinated me - how on earth do you get honey into a jar from bees foraging in a meadow? I was curious and asked lots of questions, as little kids do, and I've tried to keep that curiosity throughout my adult life and career. Being curious and asking questions - this is where it's led me.
Q: How did you make the connection between beehives and organisational behaviour?
Philip: Initially, there were two separate paths in my life. One focused on my career in organisational psychology and change management, and the other was my weekend beekeeper passion.
Then one day, I was sitting at the bus stop outside my office on a hot summer day. I noticed that the building was in fact the same size and shape as a beehive - a four-story square building with a small door at the front. People were coming and going through this busy main reception, carrying briefcases filled with experience and ideas. There was a real buzz about what was happening.
Inside the office, I noticed the inner workings were complex. What was happening wasn't obvious at first, but then I thought, "It's obvious!" Here I was, trying to keep these two steams in my life separate when in fact, they are interconnected. I've been exploring this connection ever since.
Q: Tell us more about the day you rescued bees from an airport runway?
Philip: Oh yes, that was quite an adventure! Early one morning, I got a phone call from the airport saying, "Philip, come quickly. There's a swarm of bees on the wing of a Boeing 737." This was in May, when there are lots of bee swarms, so my car was already loaded with spare hives and beekeeping equipment.
I raced to the airport, got security clearance, and drove onto the runway. I was lifted by a cherry-picker to the end of the wingtip, wearing a bee suit and carrying a box. Now, I'm a bit clumsy at the best of times, and walking the entire length of an aircraft wing was quite disconcerting!
The poor swarm had settled there the night before when it was warm, but the next morning was quite fresh, and they were in the shade, out of the sun. My job was to scoop them into a box and give them a new home. The most amusing part was looking down through my veil and seeing all the passengers, pilots, security people, and baggage handlers wearing yellow high-viz vests - they looked like anxious bees themselves! After getting the bees safely relocated, I actually had to change into my work suit and go to the office
Q: Your book advocates for "building your honeycomb" rather than climbing the career ladder. What does this mean for young professionals entering today's rapidly changing job market?
Philip: The traditional career ladder - those long, linear paths lasting decades based on time and tenure - simply don't exist anymore. Jobs for life are gone, and we need to acknowledge this reality.
What I encourage everyone to do is throw themselves into their work 100% and notice what they're good at and what they love doing. Of course, those two aren't necessarily the same thing. Speak to friends, colleagues, and complete strangers about what jobs they do. Keep your eyes and ears open to opportunities.
Throughout the book, I encourage everyone to stop, pause, and think just a little bit harder about everything going on around them. This applies especially to careers and big issues like finding our purpose in life.
Q: Speaking of purpose, what can bees teach us about finding and pursuing our life's purpose?
Philip: This is one of the culminating topics in the book. When a bee finds a source of pollen - let's say a beautiful apple tree in April - one bee will test it and come back. Then a second bee will test it. After enough bees are convinced, every bee that's foraging in that hive will go to the same apple tree. They'll pollinate a million flowers on one tree before moving on.
What I want to encourage people to do is throw themselves 100% into what they're doing if they believe it's their purpose. If it's in your heart and head and you want to do something, just throw yourself in completely. Life is short. You might do a test - what we call a side hustle nowadays - but then commit fully. If it works, you'll be wonderfully successful. If it doesn't, you've learned something valuable, and then you can test something else and move on.
Q: You write about "sensing the system" to avoid being stung. How does this apply to workplace dynamics?
Philip: This is one of my favourite chapters. When you approach a beehive on a lovely summer day, don't just wade in and start working. Before you do anything, stop and pause and notice what's happening.
You can hear if bees are stressed because the noise goes up an octave. You can smell stress because they stop making honey and produce propolis - a bitter bee glue used to protect the hive. You can see stress in their agitated movements. They might be responding to an approaching storm that humans can't even sense yet.
I use this metaphor for work situations. If you're walking into a meeting or want to make a change or reorganise a department, be aware of what's happening first. Sense the system. What are people saying? What are they not saying? What's the tone of conversations? What questions are really being asked?
We could all benefit from stopping, pausing, and sensing before acting. If you do that, you're less likely to get stung - both at work and as a beekeeper.
Q: Your chapter on decision-making discusses lessons from Scout Bees. How can organisations improve their decision-making processes?
Philip: In life, we make multiple decisions every day, but not all decisions require the same process. Different severities of decisions need different frameworks.
When bees decide to move to find a new home, it's literally a life-or-death decision for the entire colony. Here's what they do: about 10 different bees go in 10 different directions to find potential new homes. They return and do a "waggle dance" to explain where each option is and how good it is.
But each bee doesn't know about the other nine options, so other bees go to seek second opinions. If an option is good, more bees investigate, magnifying the data. This continues until they've thoroughly vetted all options and can make an informed decision as a collective.
You can get 70,000 bees aligning on a single good decision because they've done the fact-finding and vetting process thoroughly first. I wish organisations would spend more time understanding their decision-making process before diving in.
Q: How do you use these bee metaphors in your consultancy work at Hive Logic?
Philip: We find that using bee metaphors provides a fun entry point into difficult topics. For example, we do workshops about conflict resolution. By first talking about how bees fight and address conflict, we can get parties who are in conflict with each other discussing the same topic constructively.
It's not that everyone needs to work exactly like bees, but the metaphors help introduce challenging conversations in a memorable way that people enjoy. Sometimes we even bring honey and have competitions - like calculating how many bees are in a hive. It's a lovely approach that opens up difficult discussions while supporting our work with Bees for Development, a global charity we sponsor.
Q: What simple things can people do to support bee diversity in their local environment?
Philip: The charity Bees for Development recommends several steps. Firstly, teach children to respect bees and not be frightened by them. Bees aren't going to harm us - let's be curious and watch what they're doing rather than running away scared. Secondly, encourage biodiversity in your garden or balcony, including weeds. In April, May, and June, when plants flower, bees need as much pollen as possible.
"Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons from a Busy Beehive" is available at BeewiseBook.com and at online retailers in both paperback and e-book formats. Every purchase helps support Bees for Development's work with communities worldwide.