The similarity between organizations and natural living beings has been used multiple times as a metaphor for their complexity and dynamism. Over billions of years and through five extinction events, life has evolved a set of strategies for thriving in extremely challenging conditions. The most successful living forms are “super-organisms”, social species living in colonies or networks, having lifespans of hundreds and in some cases thousands of years. Cisco HR partnered with an evolutionary biologist to decode these super-organisms’ sustainability and resilience DNA, identifying key design principles applicable to human organization and networks.