A team of one is sometimes best. It might sound like heresy but sometimes the most effective way to produce something is not through collaboration. Collaboration is best for tasks which cannot be fully achieved by a single person – if a job can be completed best by one person then to collaborate to do it will only make it worse.

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In a BusinessWeek Special Report, February 2008, Matt Vella reports on how Janine Benyus, dean of the burgeoning "biomimicry" design movement, helps companies look to the natural world to help take their business green.

To coincide with the launch of my bioteams book I am delighted to announce Bioteams Books where I intend to collect The Bumblebees Top 100 Collaboration books. Just click on the books tab on the main blog menu to go to a brand new section of the Bioteams blog where you will be able to see, on a single web page, all the best books, in my humble opinion, on collaboration, team dynamics and virtual/mobile teams.

Humankind is the only species that places its trust in a small group of "leaders" to determine the best direction for the whole group. In his follow-up article to Did ants invent the perfect system for communicating via mobile technology? Ken Thompson, explores whether we can learn a thing or two about leadership from nature's most successful teams.