In Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond reviews levels of societal organization:
"The band has 5 to 80 people, are usually related by blood, typically nomadic, have 1 language and ethnicity, have egalitarian government with informal leadership, no bureaucracy, no formal structures for conflict resolution, no economic specialization (e.g., Bushmen, pygmies)."
In prior blogs, I identified factors that characterize the earliest stage of organization development as well as what is need to move to a more complex organizational structure. Simon's Stage One: Imagine and Inspire ("Can the dream be realized?") and Griener's Entrepreneurial stage - Survival being the focus with "needing leadership" the solution to the challenge of moving the business to the next level.
At this stage of organization development we are looking at human groups no larger than an extended family or clan.The environment needs only to support the basic needs of the small group in order to maintain this level of complexity. Typically, an environment that is rich enough to support more than a group this size (usually through technology such as agriculture) results in a larger population.
Skill specialization is not required in a band society; however, it seems that the group needs members that can support the next level of development – people who can be successful at providing resources and infrastructure. If no one in the group can grow food in large enough quantities, create tools or heal the sick, then development is difficult.
A group that does not have enough cohesion and common interests to cooperate with each other would have little chance to develop.
A good example of this can be found in Colin Turnbull’s book The Mountain People.
At the band level, leadership is usually “informal”, that is, the older members of the band are looked to for guidance. Decisions are often made on a consensus basis, there are no written rules with no specialized roles for enforcement of rules or laws.
In order to move to a more complex organization stage (tribe), an individual must emerge to encourage bands to work together for a common purpose ( Simon’s "Imagine and Inspire"). This person needs to have sufficient skills to assign tasks and roles in order to meet the goals of the group, as well as have the personal authority to maintain respect of the group. Intra and inter band cooperation needs to be sufficient to complete tasks needed to reach the goals identified.
When I look at small groups, no matter what the context (business, political, gangs), all of the above applies. Humans are wired to operate in this fashion, epigenetically. As OD practitioners, using the above as guidance helps us not only to identify what the "normal" behavior would be, but what may be needed if the organization wishes to develop.
Diamond, J. (March 1997). Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. W.W. Norton & Company.
Turnbull, Colin M. The Mountain People.
