Method or result, learn from ants....

Loose the wing when the purpose or the goal is accomplished is the philosophy, queen and male ants follow in their life. Having the wings is always an additional advantage for any terrestrial life form. But, interestingly the queen ants loose them at later stage especially after mating is over.

When the instinct of setting up a new colony of ants beckons, the queen ants get ready for mating. To achieve the above purpose, the queen ants develop wings and fly in the sky. Similarly, the male ants do develop wings. Both the male and female ants will have their fun filled in pleasure in the sky. Once the 'born purpose' or 'the purpose for which they are born', is complete, the queen looses her wings and land safely to earth and develops a new colony. On the other hand, the males also loose their wings, and then die soon.

What message the nature and evolution send to the humanity through a 'queen ant phenomena' is the importance of purpose or the ultimate goal orientation. The process or methodologies followed in most corporate are only to attain certain goal or purpose and hence the accomplishment of the purpose should been seen the most than the methodology or the process.

Theoretically, if the queen ant wishes to have wings permanently, it has to avoid mating. Once the mating is avoided or delayed, perhaps the wings may not disappear as the very purpose of the formation of the wings is only for mating. The wings are like some process or methods or SOP's; they help one to reach the goal or the end result.

One needs to get the message in its full meaning. Wings are the inevitable component for the mating success, certainly in some species of queen ants. Once the mating process is over, ants seems bother less about their wings and work more towards developing a new colony.

The corporate must understand about the 'process people' from the context of queen ants and wings. In most occasions people believe that only the process gives the result and hence the process is more important than the result. Process is indeed important but one should remember the fact that no process is bigger than its result. Having a process for the purpose of having a discipline is fine but 'too much worship' of either the 'process' or the 'process people' may land the corporate in big trouble.

Every event, every action and every life form on earth has a strong management message to the mankind in general and the corporate in particular. But one needs to be smart in cognize them.

Have people with 'goal accomplishment' and not just 'process people' who only know to do 'sermons' and create nothing beyond a few SOP's, DOP's and Process documents.

Reference – Management Book: Jungle wisdom for corporate management – lessons from university of nature by Swami Sukhabodhananda and Dr S Ranganathan