Honeybee beekeeper Philip Atkinson studies the busy bee hive and the bees diverse responsibilities. What can we learn from bees to improve our own interactions with each other? As an executive coach and leadership expert Philip shares how to “Bee Wise.” Proceeds from the book go to, beesfordevelopment.org

Hardworking female worker bees, they have a

lifespan of only about 34, 35 days.

And when you see them flying and foraging and landing on flowers and looking

for pollen and looking for attractive blossom, that's the last job they do.

And that's the end of their life.

And before then from birth, they specialize in these six preceding jobs.

And it's absolutely fascinating.

When the bee is first born where first hatches out of the egg and out, out the

larvae,, when it's first born, it's fully formed and ready to work immediately.

we are not bees and we're not like bees, but, but it, it provokes a

discussion around skills and it says, do the job you're doing really well.

Throw yourself into it wholeheartedly.

And then when you've mastered it, help to train other people.

That's the first thing you be a mentor, be a teacher, be a guardian.

Who's buzzing on this episode?

Well, I have the pleasure of featuring Philip Atkinson, a

beekeeper from Alsace France.

He has a deep passion for living alongside honeybees and gaining insights from them.

Philip observes and has come to understand the very intricate working relationships

among the bees and taking that knowledge

he founded his company, hive Logic.

That is awesome.

Absolute awesome name for your company, Philip.

So, with this knowledge, he has become a successful communications coach and

leadership team expert for his company.

And while he has captivated.

Actually mesmerized me really with his book Bee Wise,

so this is a fabulous name, fabulous book, fabulous guest, and I'm so thrilled

to welcome Philip Atkinson to the show.

Philip, it's so great to have you here.

Welcome to your positive imprint,

catherine, what a lovely introduction and it's

lovely to connect and to be here.

Thank you.

Absolutely.

Great, Catherine, thank you.

And I, but actually as and, and as we're sitting here, I'm seeing your

lovely logo and I kind of want to reach out and touch it and make, you know,

I know it's about positive imprint and I just wanna say I'm seeing it in

the welcome and I just want to reach out and, , we are going to share about

positive imprints today, so thank you.

Well, guess what your positive imprint is in that.

It's part of that logo.

You are listening to episode 231, part two with Philip Atkinson.

I started beekeeping as a antidote to work.

It was something completely different to work.

It was my home, home hobby and my work work was organizational

design and teams and coaching.

, They were meant to be two separate things.

Of course it hit me that the busy, complex buzzy workings of a hive

that involves communication and teamwork and decision making.

That's very similar to working in a large, complex organization.

And that's when this metaphor came to life for me at work.

And I started using beekeeping stories to help open up difficult

conversations or projects at work, and it has carried on from there.

I've got four kids and they keep me young, and their view of the

world is very different to my view of the world when I was growing up.

And it's for, it's for me to adapt to understand their perspective and under

understand their fears and concerns and their hopes and their excitement.

It's different to my own experience of being a teenager.

You know, I need to, I need to evolve.

, It's my responsibility to evolve just 'cause I'm the parent does

not, absolutely not mean I'm right.

I need to evolve the system today.

And that's, that's the exciting work and that's the important work and that's

part of the positive imprint that I wanna help encourage in the world.

Well, and and you are, indeed you are.

And your other chapter bees for Diversity, you're talking about sustainable

beekeeping, . And looking at what these bees do to survive it is a tough life and.

Yes, we have a tough life at times.

It's not tough every day.

We have good days, we have bad days, we have good years, bad years, good decades,

bad decades, whatever the case may be.

But we have to find ways to be sustainable, which is what you're

talking about with this evolving.

One of the chapters that you have in your book, is the chapter 10 steps.

If you are inspired by the Bees,

, Philip Atkinson: This section is, it's a checklist of things

to think about at the end.

It's about bees and it's about work and life.

And number five is don't obsess about weeding.

Diversity is good.

Is that not said any simpler?

Yeah.

Number six is don't use pesticides on your garden.

All natural is also beautiful.

It's also a lesson in life.

The, the whole, the, the chapter that goes deeper into this topic

is the one all about diversity.

And it's not about, it's actually not even about gender or about religion

or race or color or creed or anything.

It's actually about diversity of thinking.

And we all think differently.

I don't even want to use the word neurodiversity, but we all just

approach problems in different ways and we're all beautiful and

brilliant at different things.

And really in a working life, my goal is to help leaders hire brilliant

people and then give them the space, the confidence, the trust, the environment

to bring their brilliance to work, or else there's no point in hiring them.

Then it's not just about work, it's about, it's about children,

it's about family, it's about life.

It's about community.

Let's find the brilliance in everybody, and it's different to my brilliance.

I'm brilliant at some things.

Surely, surely I'm brilliant at something and I'm terrible

at others, but let me learn.

Let me listen, let me reflect.

Let me try and do something differently.

Let me learn from other people.

I'm a over 50-year-old white male.

Actually, let me let go of my preconceptions that I've carried

and brought with me since childhood.

Let me let go of a lot of that stuff and let me start again.

Be open to what 's happening in the world today.

You also talked about the conservation and the preservation and how

a community can help preserve the species.

Mmbatho Morudi from South Africa and Andy Friedrichs of Norway and

Melanie Kirby of United States.

They also strive for this in different ways.

Mmbatho Morudi she found that people in a village in South Africa, they were not

working together and they were killing elephants that came into their garden.

They were burning down trees to get to the beehives, killing the

bees, killing the tree, et cetera.

She's a beekeeper herself, and what she did is she talked to the villagers,

taught them about how to build a beehive, everything that you do.

But what she did is she said she wanted to put up beehives around

the perimeter of the village to keep the elephants out because

elephants don't like bees, their ears.

The people said they would do that and not cut down the trees, and then in

return they would be the beekeepers and do the honey, and she would

purchase the honey giving them jobs.

And then Andy of Norway, Andy Friedrichs , he runs a hotel KleivstuA

and he wanted so much to bring the bees back to the mountains.

And so he went through this whole process of getting them there.

And once he did, he wanted to educate the people that were visiting KLEIVSTUA.

He wants to conserve and preserve the bees by education.

So you have a plethora of friends around the world and you all need to meet.

And then Melanie is a researcher and she just left Europe.

She was one of the speakers going around,, Europe there.

What you're doing promoting sustainable beekeeping, but also promoting.

Good leadership.

And, and thank you.

Thank you, Catherine.

There are, you know, all around the world there are lovely B stories and each

of those stories, , in South Africa or Norway involved actually stopping and

thinking and how do I make a change?

You know, that I, the, I've heard about the story in Africa and it

actually starts with stopping people being scared of just stopping.

You know, people are reacting, reacting to the elephants by, by fire

or, or scared of bees and chopping trees down and people are reacting.

Actually, no, let's not react in, in that gap between a stimulus and action.

Let's just stop and think a little bit harder.

Is there an alternative way?

Are there, are there different ways of thinking?

Are there different ways that we can, we can create these,

solutions for everyone's benefit.

It's so easy just to react as we always have done.

And that just, that just repeats problems and it escalates things.

That's what I'm trying to stop happening.

It happens at work and that's what I wanna stop happening at work.

Hence your hive emotion as opposed to hive logic.

And that makes sense.

Everything you're saying is brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant.

So why Switzerland

great, thank you.

Personal story.

I was born in South Africa.

, My parents are English and I was just there for a few years.

I went back to England and I did all my school and my study in

England, in the north of England, in Yorkshire, which is beautiful.

And then actually I wanted to escape the UK and see the world, and I was offered

a job in Switzerland 25 years ago.

And I came to Switzerland to work and it was for a large life science company,

and actually it's right on the border.

The carpark of this company is based in France and I chose to live in France.

And then now, and then all I did was move out into a, a, a

small village in the countryside.

So actually my home where I am now is a 500 year old house in Alsace.

And then I cycle or drive just over the border and my office.

And most of my work is with global clients headquartered in Switzerland.

But we, we do this work online and I do keynote speaking all over the

world, , online or in person as well.

Oh, I would love to attend one of your keynotes.

Wouldn't that be fabulous?

So awesome.

And you have fabulous quotes

. Philip Atkinson: Thank you.

" Everything we do in life and at work is improved by partnering

with other good people.

This book is not just about sharing one viewpoint, it's about creating a community

towards shared thinking." There's a, there's a little story behind that.

Catherine.

I, um, I wrote chapter one by myself and then I thought, what am I doing?

Why, why have I just written one chapter by myself?

Because all of my work, really all of my work is a collaboration.

A collaboration with clients or leaders or, or associates and partners.

And I, I sat, uh, I, I sat at dinner with a friend and I said,

look, I'm really uncomfortable.

I, I've just written one chapter and it doesn't feel right.

I, I, I don't, you know, why have I written one chapter by myself?

And, and the discussion continued.

And at the end of the evening, we agreed that I would send that chapter to an

expert in the field and ask them to write a reply not to agree, when in fact, the

first reply from the chapter one, um, the expert says, I don't agree with Philip.

I have a different view.

And I was delighted.

I was delighted.

He brings in an extra tension that, that I'd missed.

And, and it's, it's a reply.

So we have 12 chapters, 12 themes, and then we have 12 guest writers, each of

whom have written a very thoughtful and sometimes very thought provoking reply.

And the book therefore becomes a dialogue.

And I think it's made the book a lot richer.

It's not the world according to Philip.

It's a dialogue between 12 good people and myself.

I'm delighted their contribution.

, And they've not written to agree with me., They've written their thinking.

And it's great.

I love that part of the book.

That's more, that's more diversity, isn't it?

I want to help people think, and I want people to help have better discussions.

But actually what else I could give and positive impact is I,

I partner with a charity already called Bees for Development.

And actually the project you described in Africa where the villagers, , create

honey and then they sell the honey.

And it's a similar model.

So it's a charity that supports people in developing countries all over the world to

have bee skills, to have bee businesses, to pay for their children's education.

It's a wonderful, wonderful charity.

Bees for development.org and all proceeds from the book go to the charity.

So if you buy it on Amazon, you buy it on Kindle, you buy a hardback copy and we'll

have the links in the show program in the show reel, all proceeds go to the charity.

And it's a pleasure.

It's, it's everything for me.

It's, this is a fun project, but it's a win-win, win for everybody.

Buy the book.

Go to charity.

Simple.

Absolutely.

Thank you for sharing and , building those livelihoods for people around the world.

This is your moment of lift.

And I love that phrase.

That's from Melinda Gates.

Philip, this has been amazing and it's a, an incredible journey for

you around the world, literally.

And.

I would like to have you share your brilliant last inspiring words.

Well, the, the book title is Bee Wise, 12 Leadership

Lessons From Inside of Busy Hive.

It's not just for leaders and it's not just for work.

And one of the key messages from the book is as adults, as parents, as

volunteers, as community members, as role models, a, a and, and as

bosses at work or employees at work

but not just that, we all need to stop and pause and think a little bit

harder about who we are and what we're carrying with us and what's happening

before responding, and in that moment, in that moment of thought or calm or

process instead of reacting with the same patterns that we've always done.

Just consider what's happening for the other person.

What else is the context?

What's going on?

, What am I missing?

What do I need to understand that maybe I don't yet understand?

Just, just pause and think a little bit harder about what is happening,

and that is my positive imprint

I want to leave with the world,

Philip, inside the hive, the bees work as a collaborative community.

So thank you again, Philip, for sharing your positive imprints.

To learn more about Philip Atkinson, go to Hive-logic.com and

his project at, BEEWISEBook.com That's B-E-E-W-I-S-E-B-O-O k.com.

Again, all proceeds go to the Charity Bees for development.

You can check out Bees for development at beesfordevelopment.org.. Bees

for Development works tirelessly to promote sustainable beekeeping,

to combat poverty, build resilient livelihoods, and benefit biodiversity.

Again, Philip Atkinson, thank you so much for being here on your positive imprint.

thank you very much for your interest and curiosity.

Thank you.

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