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OPTIMUM SIZE FOR SMALL GROUP EFFECTIVENESS
There is a limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.
In this world of social media and the urge to have many ‘friends’ it is worth noting that in the 1990s British anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed that humans can comfortably maintain only 150 stable relationships. So let’s start there. Just to interact with more than 150 others is a challenge. But we all want more than to just know someone’s name and some idea of what they like or do.
A recent Harvard Business Review stat published that research by Marcia W. Blenko, Michael C. Mankins, and Paul Rogers indicates that seven (7) is the optimal size for an effective group. Yet much of the recent research suggests an optimum of 5-6 for business or social effectiveness.
This also applies to spirituality. If we want to be effective in caring for others in a group, the group size needs to be small.
LISTENING IN A SMALL GROUP
We all want to be heard, and LISNing with the heart takes time.
As the size of a group increases the number of possible person-to-person links increases rapidly as the size of the group. In a seven-member group there are twenty one possible pairings. For this reason, in order for a group to listen to each other individually, for each person to one-on-one for 10 minutes, in a group of 7 would require 210 minutes, or three and a half hours!
However if the same group listens together to one person at a time, it would take only 70 minutes.
In other words, the size of a group, and the way they listen to each other, determines how much each person is heard during a given period of time.
COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE, THE POWER OF SHARING
But there is more than just listening. There is also the power of the group! Click here to read an inspirational story about such power.
Research has shown that collective intelligence does exist.
Anita Williams Woolley, Christopher F. Chabris, Alex Pentland, Nada Hashmi and Thomas W. Malone did research to show:
“This “c factor” (the group’s collective intelligence) is not strongly correlated with the average or maximum individual intelligence of group members but is correlated with the average social sensitivity of group members, the equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking, and the proportion of females in the group.”
Our view of the benefits of listening from the heart, as equals, is changing positively.
SPIRITUAL HEALING
Most traditions acknowledge the power of social impact on a person’s health. Many religions have a strong history of healing when people come together to use their life force with intent and compassion.
Resources such as the book “The Power of Eight” are enlightening the modern mind to the healing benefits of small groups.
These recent new resources leverage from the worldwide resurgence of Circles, Councils, and Campfires.
- Portuguese farmers use a listening circle to support each other.
- For decades people like Parker J Palmer and his work on Courage and Renewal have relied on the Quaker traditions of circles to make a huge difference to teachers across the world.
- The Co-intelligence Institute supports Listening Circles.
- The men’s movement of Illuman has adopted the use of Councils for regeneration of spirit.
“A small circle of limited duration that is intentional about its process will have a deeper, more life-giving impact than a large, ongoing community that is shaped by the norms of conventional culture.”
—Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness
And so it goes.
The content of LISN is kept in pages of information, which are categorized according to content. You can find such pages filtered by category, by selecting the LISN category from the side bar drop-down list. You can find Interactive Question Surveys (IQS) is a category.
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congregation. However the death of both her mother and her daughter led her to look for a different level of connection to what she gained from her weekend religious activities. Through LISN membership Annabel found inspiration from others who have had similar losses, and who were nearby.
Ethelia is lonely, new to her new village, and with specific spiritual interests which could be called ‘mystic’. Her country does not permit views contrary to the national religion. Ethelia longs for people to explore questions and inspiration with, and finds LISN.
anyone else knowing what they are. He likes that.
He joined LISN and then discovered he can also upload his entire cohort of parishioners as users, so that they are part of the membership of LISN, but specifically assigned to his care group.
He had recently found a number of small groups existed that he did not know about. His attempts to get people to let him know had not worked, probably because things were constantly changing and there was no online method for people to update their own connections.
She looked online and found lots of offerings but no indication if they would match what she was looking for. By registering and defining membership with LISN she was able to define her own spiritual expectations in a fun way, and in doing so the list of local Spiritual Directors was somehow narrowed down to those who matched her needs and style. She loved not having to research a whole lot of options and found it easy to choose one that works well with her spirit.
LISN also has mapping and organizational support for small groups, circles, councils. LISN can link a person to spiritual circles or groups who are local or in a vicinity of interest.
