How many people does the ideal team contain? How do groups bond, earn trust and forge shared identities? How can leaders build environments adaptable enough to respond to shocks and still enable people to thrive together? How can you feel close to people if your only point of contact is a phone or a computer? The principal reason that so many organisations struggle is that they fail to understand the human factor: they make assumptions about how people tick that wholly ignore the 200,000 years of evolutionary design that went into producing them. So it’s no surprise that the end result all too often is inefficiency, lack of imagination and low morale. In The Social Brain, Oxford anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, and organisational development experts Tracey Camilleri and Sam Rockey, explain how human brains and human networks really work. They show how to make the best use of them. And they dissect the science and art of leadership, providing insights into how to create organisations in which people can learn, develop and thrive – and be resilient in the face of change and disruption.
