In A Primate's Memoir, Stanford University neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky recalls how a generous army donation of surplus night goggles utterly transformed the field of carnivorology. The ability to see in the dark revolutionized how zoologists saw scavengers, predators and prey, which ultimately led to dramatic reversals in our characterizations of the animal kingdom.

Thus, Sapolsky writes, "Redemption of the hyenas. It turns out that they are fabulous hunters, working cooperatively, taking down beasties ten times their size. They have one of the highest percentages of successful hunts of any big carnivore. And you know who has one of the worst? Lions. They're big, conspicuous, relatively slow. It's much easier for them just to key in on cheetahs and hyenas and rip them off. That's why all those hyenas are lurking around at dawn looking mealy and unphotogenic-they just spent the whole night hunting the damn thing and who's eating breakfast now?"

That new instruments can enable new insights is hardly a revelation. The surprise is that these technologies have been better employed explaining animal behavior on the African savannah than exploring human behavior in more corporate environments. Just as night vision revealed the king of the jungle to be more scavenging bully than noble hunter, techniques such as network monitoring of software systems and video-based surveillance of employees at work can give innovators provocative perspectives on the predator, prey and scavenger relationships of their own customers.

For example, a medical device company (which understandably wants to remain anonymous) decided to surreptitiously videotape, with hospital administrators' permission, how nurses actually used its prototype drug delivery system. The company quickly recognized that its product wasn't being used the way it was supposed to be. Moreover, it discovered what kind of shortcuts the nurses would take-creative and otherwise-to get the system to work, and at what points they would either ask for help or simply give up. This information proved enormously helpful and led to a fundamental redesign of both the product and how hospital staffs are trained to use it. That, in turn, completely changed how the company marketed its systems to hospitals and nurses. The firm has yet to decide whether to make video surveillance an ongoing practice.