Sphexishness

I learned this term last week. Army ants follow each other’s pheromone trails. Occasionally, they accidentally form a loop (also called an “ant mill”) and walk in circles until they die of exhaustion (video here).

Where might we be using concepts sphexishly; following a rule without checking if it works in evolving or changing contexts?

For example, progressively more onerous third-party onboarding and contracts (covering every possible violation) might work if you’re a megacorp, able to muster the legal and investigative resources to pursue those third-parties in the event they violate your terms. But if you’re the rest of us, is more and more legal paper the solution to de-risking supply and value chains?

I get switchy when I hear, “Yes, we put that in the contractual terms,” used as a proxy for risk mitigation. It’s sphexishness to follow legal frameworks used by the other army ants rather than consider your overall capacity, influence, direction of travel, value chain, and decision-making processes in supplier (or partner) selection.