The Great Ideas Letter Forum

...And the Magic of 150 !

Posted By: Dien Rice
Date: Monday, 28 February 2005, at 5:07 p.m.

In Response To: The Magic of 4 (Ankesh Kothari)

Hi Ankesh,

Thank you for sharing that article... It was interesting.

I certainly agree with it... I think a good number of people to "get together" is 3 or 4. I find that 5 or more becomes a bit unwieldy... But with 3 or 4, usually no one gets "left out", and there's also enough people to keep the conversation going easily. :)

Now, about the magic of "150". I forgot where I read about this first... It comes from the experience of the company Gore Associates (which makes Gore-Tex fabrics and other innovative products) http://www.gore.com .

They like to split up their growing company into "plants" of 150 people. When one plant gets more people than that, they split it up into two plants. Something like that.

Here's why.

They found that, with 150 people, everyone more or less knows each other. And they can work together well, they look out for each other.

With more than that, then things start to become too impersonal. You don't know everyone.

I've had a similar experience - with schools. For 3 years, I went to a Elementary/Junior High school which had around 150 to 200 students. And while you may not know everyone's name, you knew everyone's face. The school had a great "small community" feeling about it. I loved being there!

I've also been in the opposite situation... For one year, I went to a school (with students from Kindergarten to Year 12) with around 2000 students. There's no way you'd get to know everyone at that school!

Anyway, by keeping their "groupings" to 150 or less, apparently Gore Associates enables their employees to work happily and efficiently together. I guess they manage to keep the "small community" feel, as they continue to expand into a large corporation. They get rid of the impersonal "big business" feel for their employees, that you get in most big bureaucratic companies with thousands of employees.

Here's an interesting article on this too - on how this grouping of 150 relates to science as well (such as in other primates)!

http://www.commonsenseadvice.com/human_cortex_dunbar.html

Thanks Ankesh for sharing an interesting concept and article!

- Dien

Messages In This Thread

The Magic of 4
Ankesh Kothari -- Thursday, 10 February 2005, at 1:27 a.m.

Readiing that article caused me confusion
Michael Ross -- Wednesday, 16 February 2005, at 7:50 p.m.

...And the Magic of 150 !
Dien Rice -- Monday, 28 February 2005, at 5:07 p.m.