Woolley-Barker - Teeming: how superorganisms work together to build infinite wealth on a finite planet (and your company can too)

Advanced Praise for Teeming

Instead of re-inventing the wheel while setting up an organization, why not look at cooperatives that have been around for millions of years. Tamsin Woolley-Barker uses modern knowledge of animal societies to show us what works, how it works, and why animals from ants to our fellow primates perhaps know something that we dont.

Frans de Waal, PhD, author of Chimpanzee Politics and Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

This is a terrific book. As with colonies of ants, packs of wolves, schools of fish, and gatherings of any other social organisms, a swarm of humanswhether a rally, an army, or a corporationdoes not behave like the sum of its individual parts. Teeming offers a scintillating, provocative, mind-bending marriage of sociobiology, biomimicry, and organization theory, chock full of facts and theories that help explain these often-mystifying superorganisms composed of people like you and me.

Denis Hayes, Founder of Earth Day, author of Cowspiracy

Teeming is a smart, funny, erudite guide to what makes superorganisms so extraordinary. Its astonishing and practical, packed with simple rules for teams, for companies, for communities who want to coalesce effortlessly around a shared purpose. Organizations working for a just and sustainable world? Please devour this book. Its a vital slice of biological intelligence, served with scientific candor, grace, and wit.

Janine Benyus, Co-Founder Biomimicry 3.8 and Biomimicry Institute; author of Biomimicry

With millions of species and time-tested strategies to draw from, biomimicry offers endless creative potential. Ensuring we get natures lessons right requires being true to the science, translating natures design principles with integrity, and making that wisdom accessible to those who put it in practice. Woolley-Barker gracefully does all threehonoring the science, teasing out the deep patterns, and spinning a compelling vision of a better future. This is a rich resource, and one worth taking the time to enjoy. The principles are easy to apply, and its not far-fetched to say your organization will thrive like the ants and fungus if you do. Teeming is your go-to resource for making that happen.

Dayna Baumeister, PhD. Principal Biomimicry 3.8; co-director Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University

Teeming is clearly a labor of love, with a lifetime of research, experience, and thought poured into it. These are not facile sound bites, and they deserve a good read. You will certainly get your moneys worth. Start reading, and go about your businessDr. Woolley-Barkers superorganisms will jump out at you everywhere you goat work, at home, and even on the evening news. Working together can work a whole lot better, if we learn from nature. Not just that, but there is a real person inside these pagesone wed like to know. Tamsin weaves a rich conversation full of entertaining adventurea journey of the mind and spirit, and one you wont forget.

Jay Harman, CEO PAX Scientific and author of The Sharks Paintbrush

Evolutionary biologist Woolley-Barker draws on the ancient R&D of living systems to show how nature can help us challenge Silicon Valleys vertical hierarchies and billion dollar unicorns with self-organized systems that are functional, flat, agile, adaptive and resilient. Teeming is a timely, insightful, inspiring and enjoyable exploration of one of the deepest challenges facing not only the sustainable movement but all modern organizationshow to ensure the adaptive benefits of emergent coordination without the deadening impacts of command and control.

Gil Friend, Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Palo Alto; Founder, Natural Logic, Inc.

Teeming is a full and excellent account of the Whys and the Hows of organizational biomimicry for enterprises and teams. It is packed full of biological examples and fascinating anecdotes, all beautifully written in a personal, engaging, and thoughtful style. Well done!

Ken Thompson, author of Bioteams and The Networked Enterprise

Tamsin Woolley-Barker does a superb job explaining what we can learn from other super social species, ranging from naked mole rats, ants and bees, to elephants and humpback whales, to become happier, more creative, and more successful members of companies, organizations, and society.

Peter Gloor, Author Swarm Creativity, Research Scientist, MIT Center for Collective Intelligence

Have you ever found yourself stuck in an endless, pointless business meeting, wondering how we could operate in a better way? Well, wonder no more! Teeming is chock-full of relevant wisdom from our most reliable and ancient source, Nature herself. Tamsin Woolley-Barkers training as an evolutionary biologist and biomimicry professional are evident on every page, as she illuminates lessons from the natural world that can dramatically improve our businesses, our teams, and our lives.

Katherine Collins, Founder, Honeybee Capital and author of The Nature of Investing

An easy-to-digest book with profound implications for the future of our social systems, Teeming overflows with poetic and scientific insight. It is also an entertaining read. This timely book explores how competition and cooperation play out in all social systems. With gracious ease Dr. Woolley-Barker blends her passion and expertise for sociobiology, facilitation, ecology and systems thinking to provide the theoretical insight and practical application we sorely need in redesigning our organizational systems to flourish far into the future. Diverse, self-organizing, collaborative, and purposeful superorganisms provide powerful insight into how the firms of the future can adapt and thrive in these transformative times, while creating the conditions conducive for life to flourish. A must read for those with an eye on what our future could hold.

Giles Hutchins, author of Future Fit and The Nature of Business

I consider this book a must read for anyone with a manager title in my organization. Tamsin Woolley-Barker masterfully teaches us how nature gets the job donewithout drama and overhead. Crisp, intentional, audacious.

Reza Sadeghi, PhD, Chief Strategic Officer, BIOVIA/Dassault Systems

As a systems communicator, Im always looking for ways to unlock natures tenuous genius. At last, the solution has arrived. Woolley-Barker is the fresh and futurist voice our Age of Biology has been waiting for.

Zem Joaquin, Founder, Near Future Summit & ecofabulous, Huffington Post Editor at Large

Teeming should be required reading for everyone working in (or managing) a team. Creative and design teams will find invaluable insight into applying the lessons of Nature to their own company, culture and process. I wish I had this book 20 years ago!

Eric Corey Freed, Architect, Author, and Facilitator, Institute for Living Futures

Truly a fascinating and inspiring read! Using the principles of Biomimicry, Sociobiology, and Evolution, Dr. Woolley-Barker shows how to transform your own company by emulating natures most efficient natural models and systemsall forged over billions of years of trial and error. Only the winningest systems have survivedwhy reinvent the wheel when you can take advantage of 3.8 billion years of optimization driven by natural selection? Teeming goes even further. By demonstrating that humans are an evolutionary noveltyant-like apes with deeply biological adaptations for ensuring equity, fairness, and cooperationTeeming makes the case that termite mounds and slime molds have something uniquely relevant to teach us about doing business. This Stone Soup cookbook will entertain you and blow your mind, while tangibly showing how to tailor your own superorganism for sustainable success.