Team Sizes

(return to Co-creative Learning Teams or see some keywords)

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The Whole Course

1. Systems Thinking
2. Self-regulation
3. Self-coordination
4. Living systems
5. Team consciousness
6. Team synergy
7. Team sizes
8. Team diversity
9. Lucky Teams
10. Team Tools

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7. Team Sizes

1. Why do humans find it hard to keep track of everyone in a large team?
2. The anthropologist Robin Dunbar has estimated these cognitive limits.
3. His research compared human cranium sizes with those of other primates.
4. We can sustain more friendships than other primates but we have limits.
5. 150 (the Dunbar number) suggests an upper limit on casual friendships.
   • The 5 PEOPLE - with whom we regularly spend 40% of our time
   • The 15 PEOPLE - with whom we spend 60% of our time
   • The maximum 100-250 PEOPLE we may find in our Facebook accounts etc..

Optimum Team Sizes

1. Of course, this is a subjective and context-dependent issue.
2. When teams exceed the Dunbar number hierarchies get steeper.
3. And fixed managerial hierarchies may impede self-coordination in co-creative teams.
4. So, for the purposes of learning we prefer very small teams.
5. Cognitive limits for creative juggling seem low (around four or five?)

Further reading

1. Backwell, J. & Wood, J., (2012a) Network Consciousness
2. Backwell, J. & Wood, J., (2012b), Network Consciousness and Paradigm Change
3. Creative Quartets
4. Reinventing Invention
5. Learner-creator Duos

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