Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1376] IFETS Digest 201 - communication theory links research
Lilly3653@aol.com
Date: Thu 15 Mar 2001 - 17:35:05 MET
From: Lilly3653@aol.com Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2001 11:35:05 EST Subject: [IFETS-DISCUSSION:1376] IFETS Digest 201 - communication theory links research
Charles Nelson asks:
>Does anyone know if others, perhaps in the field of communication
>theory, have done such research?
This is my first contribution to this list. I find the conversations very
stimulating and the summaries extremely useful. Thank you to
all who take on the onerous task of serving all of us in doing this
job. I am a practitioner in the field of adult education, especially
in the conditions of change and transition.
The question above reminded me of the work done some years
ago at the EDS research center by Marcial Losada and his team.
They looked at the high performance teams and compared
them with low and medium performance teams. The premise
was that best results are evidence of the ability of teams to
adapt to changing conditions - hence they are examples of
group learning in action.
I am aware that Marcial's work was related to teams and not
individual learning. However, given the nature of his research
and his extensive use of non-linear mathematics and complexity
theory, this may give you some pointers worth pursuing.
The central finding was that the nexus of the group should be 8.
This translates into 8 links in your conversations. However, in
a message to me Marcial said:
"I do know that as the group size increases over eight in
face-to-face groups a lot of people drop out of the active
nteraction. That's why national security councils, for example,
rarely larger have more than eight people; presidents want
the maximum possible engagement and inputs from everybody
in the group."
Marcial is a psychologist who has worked with groups that
enjoy face-to-face interactions. He said:
"I can only guess that inquiry-advocacy, other-self, and
positivity-negativity will be quite relevant for interactions
in virtual spaces, as would be connectivity."
In practical terms:
"these variables help me in my own life: I look for imbalances in
inquiry-advocacy, other-self, and pay great attention to how much
negative feedback I am using compared to positive feedback.
And, of course, I pay a lot of attention to building lasting and strong
nexi nexi with people. I selected these three variables for my study
after over twenty years of experience in group dynamics using
all sorts of variables. I had to discard many that weren't as
powerful as these three.
The beauty of nonlinear dynamics is that there is a a very simple
and elegant criterium to know whether you've found the most
powerful variables: if you vary your control parameter (connectivity
in my case), do you get dramatic changes in the dynamics of the
state variables as shown if phase space? Well, as you noticed
we go all the way from point attractors for LPTs, to limit cycles
in MPTs, and chaotic attractors (that I now call "complexors''
--short for complex order) for HPTs."
In practice therefore, to achieve high performance one has to
augment connectivity. Marcial explains how he discovered and
proved this:
"To me the great challenge was to show unequivocally, using the
latest in nonlinear science and complexity theory, that but varying
just the control parameter (connectivity) I could demonstrate
dramatic differences in the interaction dynamics of these teams
using three variables that would made sense to business people
as well as academicians. The beauty of the whole thing is that
by just changing one number (18 to 22 to 32) and leaving the
other parameters and nonlinear equations untouched, completely
different dynamics show up in phase space."
I would like to finish with Marcial Losada's explanation:
"As a psychologist who has passionately studied human
interaction for four decades, nothing makes more sense to me
than using a nonlinear dynamical paradigm to approach the
intricate complexity of such behavior."
Please carry on with this dialogue and the list.
Kind regards
Lilly Evans
-------------------
Dr Lilly Evans
Director, Strategic Learning Web
Alheri, Woodlands Road West
Virginia Water, Surrey GU25 4PL
UK
tel. +44-1344-843-653
fax +44-1344-842-418
email: lilly3653@aol.com
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