Brilliant and insightful exploration into how we can enhance meaningful relationships in our lives and our businesses.

Ever wondered why, after trying all the organisational efficiency methods a modern MBA can throw at you, your organisation is still struggling and feels more like a detention centre than a company of people with shared purpose? Then read on.

I’ve just had the pleasure of devouring The Social Brain by Tracey Camilleri, Samantha Rockey and Robin Dunbar. You’ve probably heard of the Dunbar Number, the number 150, identified by Prof Robin Dunbar as the optimum number of relationships that anyone can meaningfully manage.

This brilliant book shows why leaders can’t ignore the Dunbar Number, bringing together anthropology, organisational psychology and the study of leadership to provide insights that seem so simple when you’ve read it that you wonder why it took 3 prestigious academics to tell us what, essentially, we already know. People perform better when you treat them like people.

But when you look around and you realise that, for all the fluff and bluster we hear about ‘people being our most important asset’, many leaders ignore this simple fact and continue to treat humans as a productivity metric hung on a human frame. It doesn’t work, it’s not good for us or our businesses and we can do better.

If we want our businesses to thrive, if we want to get the best out of ourselves and our teams, if we aspire to achieve great things (without going insane or destroying our family lives), if we want to be happier and live longer, healthier lives, then we should all be implementing the lessons from this book.

I’m going to go all in here. The Social Brain is going to stand alongside the greats, Man’s Search for Meaning, How to Win Friends and Influence People, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People etc and in years to come, the CEOs of tomorrows mega-corps are going to be doing TV interviews about how this book helped them build, turn around or transform their businesses. It really should be compulsory reading for anyone in leadership.

And if you ever visit a company that’s growing like billio, feels like home, where the staff are happy, relaxed and energised and you happen to spy a copy of The Social Brain on the shelf, it’s probably not a coincidence. You might want to see if there are any vacancies.

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