Nepotism and Dunbar’s Number

Regular readers will know that I’ve been moving house. I’ve made the leap from a very pretty home in a small village beneath Belvoir Castle (the home of the Duke and Duchess of Rutland) to life in the centre of the City of Bath. Both are time capsules in different ways.

The village I have moved from is called Knipton – and my former home there could be dated back as a settlement to the days of the vikings. It’s the sort of village that Robin Dunbar would have researched when worked out his number – 150.

As readers from the UK will know, it’s our year for a census. I took the time to dig out what life looked like just over 120 years ago. No surprises

…..Thank you for visiting. My blog has moved. You can find the rest of this post by clicking here.

, the village was divided in to two areas (North end and South end) – and they were made up of approximately 150 people each. Please take some time to click the links and skim through the names, families and birthplaces.

What is most striking from the census is that most of the people were born and lived their whole lives in the village – or have come in from a maximum of 5-10 miles away. There were a small number of family names making up the numbers – and many of them I can recognise in the area today. Families stayed together – and their jobs and crafts were passed down from generation to generation. This was nepotism at its finest. Was there something wrong with that?

We live in a world with very confusing signals. On one hand we want to get back to family values. On the other we want to fight a war on nepotism. Strange!

Last week, I wrote about the UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg making policy in “Canutish” style. He basically said that it was now “what you know” not “who you know” that will matter from now on. At the weekend, I watched a BBC current affairs comedy programme – “Have I got News for You”. It’s very entertaining show, full of satire – and the funniest guy on the panel by far is Paul Merton. On this topic, he didn’t create a funny. He just said:

“That’s what people do. They want to look after their kids. They want them to go to the best schools and they want them to have the best jobs. You can’t stop that.”

Many a true word is spoken in jest!

POLL RESULT: If LinkedIn closed down – would you REALLY miss it?

The polls have closed – and the results are in…

4,657 LinkedIn members took the time to vote on the poll – and 239 added their comments. 55% of respondents “Would REALLY miss it”, 30% said “I would for a while, but I’d get over it” and 14% said “Not one bit.”

The poll was set up to get feedback on my original post – which reflected the “risk” statements in LinkedIn’s SEC filings on their way

…..Thank you for visiting. My blog has moved. You can find the rest of this post by clicking here.

to an IPO (Initial Public Offering) later in the year.

I’m not great at analysing this sort of data – and would be interested to see if you can see any trends in the spit of demographics for each question.

It seems like the younger you are, the more you would miss it. The older your are – then the less you are bothered. Also, LinkedIn members who are Owners or CxO/VP level would be happier to make do without. Can you read anything more in to the graphs?

It was great to read so many comments – wish I had so many on my blog ;-( Some of the highlights that made me smile/think are below. Thanks for voting….

Copper Wires, Social Capital and Murdering Relationships

I continue to be impressed by the quality of people who can be found on-line. My most recent discovery has been Martin Gargiulo – who is a professor at INSEAD.

My first introduction to his work was a 16 minute video (posted below). His key point (which I agree with) is that there’s much more to networks than meets the eye. While some networks are an asset that helps you get things done, other networks can also be a liability.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

INSEAD Knowledge Videos – Martin Gargiulo on ne…, posted with vodpod

Throughout the video interview, he compares the reciprocal relationship between people in the network to electrical copper wires. Firstly, he says that the thicker

…..Thank you for visiting. My blog has moved. You can find the rest of this post by clicking here.

the copper wire – the more energy in the relationship. He goes on to use the same analogy to say that these cables do not rot – and can be easily reactivated. It’s a good way to consider those weak ties (and often close relationships) where our communication is infrequent.

I was greatly amused by how he describes that relationships have to be pro-actively broken. He says that “you must murder” a relationship to really break it! The relationship – not the person…

The video supports an on-line survey that Martin has created to measure the Social Capital of your Personal Network. There is a charge (€20) – but I would definitely recommend. I completed it (did not take long) and the 9 page report gives an excellent overview (with supporting narrative) of your Personal Network. It also compares your score against a reference group. Click here to read more – and hopefully give it a try.

Would love to compare results – and discuss further.

Welcome to my blog about Personal Networks

Hello!  This blog is intended to track my journey trying to understand how Personal Networks work, their value to us as individuals (my hunch they might be our most important asset!) – and whether there is a way to make sense of them visually.

I’m not a serial networker – I have less than a hundred contacts on LinkedIn (as of today), my Facebook presence is really there to keep an eye on my children …. and I can think of nothing worse than attending a “networking” event.  However, I am an entrepreneur who is committed to business development – and to create new ideas I need people around me and information from all sorts of places.  The same applies

…..Thank you for visiting. My blog has moved. You can find the rest of this post by clicking here.

when a strategy is developed – and it’s time to deliver.  I do believe that I have a good quality network of people who trust in me – and this diverse network has helped me to create and develop new ventures.

I’ve been fortunate to have built a business from scratch – and sold it at the peak of the market.  This means that for the last 4 years I’ve managed to take time out to think, play and get involved in small (but exciting) projects.

Anyway, I am working with two of my colleagues from the business we sold to develop our ideas around Personal Networks.  We have a fledgling idea, a registered domain name (VizWho) and some basic tools to start piloting.  If you visit this blog – I hope you will find some of the discussions and resources interesting … and hopefully you might come along for the journey (maybe even join my Personal Network!).

Phil O’Brien