Team bonding: the session

A session about bees, without a single bee in the room.

It is not a lecture about pollination, and nobody has to wear a veil. It starts with a simple question — what made you curious enough to join? — and then uses the hive as a lens on something everyone in the room knows well: how an organisation works.

Some of the questions we get into

  • Who really decides in a hive — and who only thinks they do?
  • How is the work shared out, and who decides who does what?
  • Why can a colony replace its queen, and what does that say about leadership?
  • What happens to a signal that half the colony ignores?
  • When should a team explore something new, and when should it stick to what works?
  • Why does a small share of the bees do a large share of the work?

And what all of it has to do with your own company, your customers and your marketing.

Honey bees and wild bees

Part of every session, because most people have never heard it.

  • Greece has more kinds of bees than any other country in Europe: about 1,190 species. Only one of them is the honey bee.
  • Most wild bees live alone. No queen, no hive, no honey — and most of them nest in small holes in the ground.
  • About one in ten wild bee species in Europe is at risk of extinction. The honey bees in our hives are kept animals, looked after by a beekeeper.
  • A honey bee usually collects food within one or two kilometres of its hive, and can fly ten kilometres or more. Many wild bees stay within a few hundred metres of their nest.
  • So a wild bee depends on the flowers next to its home. Where too many hives stand together, honey bees can empty those flowers first. Studies have measured this up to about a kilometre around large apiaries. Honey bees can also pass diseases on to wild bees.
  • Our own practice: our apiaries stand two to three kilometres apart, so our hives do not pile up in one place.
  • That is why adopting hives supports a beekeeper and teaches people about bees. It is not a way to save wild bees — and we will not tell you it is.

The format

Online, in English or Greek. Interactive: people talk, ask and argue. We have given this talk many times to groups and visitors.

The first session is our gift with every package of hives; it is worth €600. More sessions, for another team or another office, are €600 each, on request.

What HR can report

The session counts as training. You receive the date, the duration and the attendance list, ready for training hours in your sustainability report (GRI 404-1, EU Voluntary Standard B10, ESRS S1-12). A short quiz before and after the session shows what people learned, and you get the results.

What we promise, and what we don’t

People learn something — the quiz shows how much — and talk about it afterwards. We do not promise that one session will raise engagement or productivity. Nobody honest can.

GET STARTED

Questions? Write to us, or leave your details and we will get back to you.

info@thehiveproject.gr

GET STARTED