13 is said to be unlucky. So much so that the triskaïdekaphobics in the United States have had the floor between 12 and 14 in the buildings removed. Everyone has their lucky numbers that they play on the lotto grids. 1,2,3, we will go to the woods… The most addicted know everything about numerology, the symbolism of numbers and, tightly screwed on dark glasses, calculate the suites in the casino to win. What about algorithms to model a system? Esotericism is never far away: the Bible is full of codes and the green one competes for first place with Keanu Reeves alias Neo whose anagram is “One”, so the Chosen One in Matrix. Surrounded by figures with which he juggles, it was necessary that the ideal figure of man be determined by astrologers, computer scientists and researchers. “We thought about the ideal size of a team and it revolves around 7 people”, affirmed David Yana in 2016, then HRD France of Google, in The echoes.
“I have worked in companies of all sizes with projects of 5 to 15,000 people. For me, a team starts with 3 people and cannot go beyond 12, because, beyond that, the information is loses, communication is more complex,” says Bouchra Benkassem, co-founder of CreaSila. Forming a team means upstream defining the objectives of the project, the deliverables and the skills necessary to make it succeed. For her, there is no magic number at 7. “It is the number of key skills as well as the complexity and the deadlines of the project which determine the size of the team, which means that it will be 6, 7 or 10. The more complex the project, the more people will be needed. If the need requires more than 12 individuals, it must be divided into several teams”. His first piece of advice: find multi-skilled people (related expertise and skills) who are able to lend a hand if one of the colleagues is absent. In the event that several teams contribute to the same project, a mapping (needs/skills matrix) allows you to see who should be in which team for them to interact at best. His second piece of advice: choose the right project manager “who will set the pace”. An experienced person who does not put pressure on himself, who is able to resist if elements exogenous to the team constantly call him to account and, above all, who does not bring the stress down on the members of the team.
“A team is a group of actions”, describes Olivier Devillard, author of Team dynamics and collective intelligence (Eyrolles, 2017). “The size of the groups can vary a lot, but that of a team should never exceed fifteen people”. For this “coach of the collective”, a team is comparable to a group of close and accomplice peers, oriented towards an operational goal. This mode, which combines human cohesion and technical cohesion, finds its dynamics, and “there are dynamics specific to each size”. At 2, it’s a couple dynamic, with strong equality and good cohesion. At 3, “the operating paradigm changes a lot”: ally or reject (2 against 1), compare. Then, “small groups of 4/5/6 with few internal oppositions”, a lot of individual space and a greater number of interactions than at 2/3. “At 7/8, the groups are richer, they have the advantage of good creativity and greater openness; they are easy to manage, the diversity is great and the space between people is still quite limited. “. Nor is there a magic number at 7 for Olivier Devillard. 9 is the maximum size because “if we go up to 11/12, a propensity to division may appear, unless very voluntary management of cohesion is put in place”. At each stage, links intersect. For this expert, “the team, a small group on a human scale, has the great advantage of providing an individual with everything that the company cannot provide because of its too large size: stimulation and recognition, cohesion and feeling of belonging, ties of proximity and security”. If life in a team has an abrasive side, it is on the other hand a place of personal development which provides satisfaction, stimulation, solidarity. To ponder for those who seek to give meaning to employees tempted to see elsewhere: “Do we not say that the first element of quality of life at work is the team to which we belong?”
