From Ted Lovesey
Mark Buchanan refers to humourist C. Northcote Parkinson’s ideas about committees (10 January, p 38). Parkinson’s suggestions have more far-reaching applications than just committee size.
When working on a project to reduce the crew workload in a large anti-submarine aircraft, I was continually being pressured to increase the crew size.
In fact, such an increase would have added to the problem.
This is because there is a “communications overhead” created by people interacting with each other. Say there were 1 unit of communication overhead for two people. With three people, the overhead for all three communicating together increases to 3 units – one for each two-way conversation available. By the time eight crew members are communicating, the overload has risen exponentially to 28 units, sharply reducing the amount of time left to complete the primary task.
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For n people, this overhead is equivalent to (n × (n-1))/2 which is the number of unique pairs that can be chosen from the people communicating with each other. Try it.
I would recommend reading Parkinson’s Law: Or the pursuit of progress. It’s must for scientists, engineers and managers.
Stoke Gabriel, Devon, UK
