Community & Organizing

• The Rule of 150
  
  In Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point (Little, Brown: Boston, 2002), there's an interesting piece about the human "social channel capacity". According to recent anthropological studies, our brains are made to handle a group of about 150 members— that is, we can deal comfortably with about 150 relationships at a time. After this, we form subgroups and/or factions. Gladwell cites Gore Associates, the makers of GoreTex, as a company which has taken this fact and applied it: The company is divided into modules of about 150 employees. There are no titles, and instead of bosses, there are ‘sponsors’ who are charged with looking after the interests of those they are sponsoring. There are no organization charts, no budgets, no strategic plans. Salaries are determined collectively. Yet the company is highly successful, profitable and growing rapidly. Bill Gore, the late founder, stumbled onto the "Rule of 150" in the early years of the company's development when he found that "things get clumsy at a hundred and fifty." Read more...