Integrate local specifics with global vision.

“We’ve seen the ants’ triple-unit leaders and the honeybee scouts – buzzing out into the world to look for homesites and flower patches. Arguably these represent a kind of leader class, but not the way we are used to thinking about it. What’s the difference? There are far more leaders in these societies. For one thing, 30% of outside workers ‘lead,’ exploring, observing local realities, distilling them into larger patterns, and disseminating that vision back down and across the colony. They don’t command or control – they look for patterns, using them to knit their modular teams into an integrated system. … Early European explorers and anthropologists were mystified by their encounters with foraging societies. It wasn’t clear whether leaders even existed. But they did, and still do. The ideal conception of a leader looks similar in foraging societies worldwide: they should be generous, kind, and respectful, and completely absent of temper, greed, or bias. Honest, patient, humble, couching opinions as suggestions. Gifted at sensing what others want, skilled at facilitating consensus – they should be last to speak up and least opinionated, like a hamadryas [baboon] leader male. Foraging societies don’t have a set number of leaders either, any more than ants and bees do. Anyone with the right temperament can step into the role. The more the better, in face, as more diverse and independent voices make greater collective intelligence. Each of us has an important role to play in our collective future, and the more who step forward to fill it, the better.”

Tamsin Woolley-Barker, Teeming: How Superorganisms Work Together to Build Infinite Wealth on a Finite Planet