While flipping through cable TV with my handy remote I stopped on the Science Channel and watched a program called Super Animals. The subject of the day was Super Cockroaches. Scientists were looking at connections between robots and animals and the focus of this program was cockroaches.

A group of roaches were numbered and their movements recorded and examined by computer. The movements were then transferred to roach robots. The robots were about half the size of a box of matches. They looked nothing like cockroaches but their programmed movements would not alarm real roaches. Next, the robots were given paper overcoats infused with cockroach pheromones, which would trigger natural behavioral response in cockroach communities.

For the first experiment both robots and roaches were released in a controlled space with two transparent colored disks to hide under. The cockroaches naturally sought cover beneath the darker disk followed by the robot roaches who were accepted as fellow roaches. The next experiment was to see if the real roaches would follow the robot roaches now programmed to seek protection under the lighter disk. They did. The robot roaches had become Super Cockroaches . . . leaders of their cockroach brethren.

The robot roaches experiment might lead to approaches to rid homes of roaches without the use of deadly poisons. This same type of experiment may lead to similar experiments with other animals like using robot sheep to help herd sheep and thereby negate the use of fences, shepherds, and dogs.

The conclusions of the robot roach experiment let my mind wander to employee relationships. Would humans accept robot employee examples and follow their behavior? Could the intricacies of work habits be programmed into a Super Employee Robot? As I imagined an entire workforce working diligently, confidently, and happily towards common business goals I stopped. Why bother?

Why try to build artificial intelligence when humans already have intelligence? Improving the workforce is not mysterious. Rewards and respect are the basics that will alter most bad work habits. Almost everyone knows that. What we need are managers who know employees and effort.

We need managers to work with employees, to communicate on a regular basis, and to share mission statements, procedures, and success. Sometimes this means just telling employees what is expected of them or just asking about their needs, or just encouraging them after a bad day. I think we already have Super Employees we just don’t have very good ways of figuring out who they are or who they could be.

Is this so far fetched? If so, then perhaps what we need are not Super Employees, but rather Super Managers. Maybe, if we could replicate management pheromones . . .