The Social Brain

"Ever since the Industrial Revolution, an engineering mindset has dominated management thinking, making it easy for managers to forget that, ultimately, productive work is human. This wonderful book reminds us that businesses are also biological and social: created by living beings who can – and want to – transcend individual capacity with collective intelligence. It could not be more timely, wise and useful."
Margaret Heffernan
The Social Brain at Work is the result of a long standing partnership between Oxford Evolutionary Psychologist, Robin Dunbar and Leadership and Organisational specialists, Tracey Camilleri and Sam Rockey. The book combines scientific research with interviews with over forty people, leading in diverse environments – government, orchestras, theatre, medicine, military, business and design, to name a few.
The pay-off will be the creation of organisations that the next generation will thrive in - where work is decent, purposeful and enjoyed and where each person gets to express their individual talent in work that matters. As the historian Theodore Zeldin said to us, “Can we not start experiments to offer something better to young people? Isn’t this the real purpose of business?”
Reviews


Terry Kemple is a retired GP living in Bristol and has various roles promoting greater sustainability in general practice. He is a past President of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He is on Twitter: @TKemple
Questioning old ways of structuring your work and abandoning useless habits sounds good, but do you really need to read another book about leadership and teams?
The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups revives ancient ways of working together, backed by insights about the biological limits of our social brains. Working in large NHS organisations, full of inefficiencies, with ill thought-out contracts and poorly articulated labour relations, sours our trust and goodwill. Knowing how our brains work best may improve how we lead and organise teams. It could feel like the difference between swimming with the current rather than against it.
Read the article HERE
