• At the end of February, Dave Riveness will be speaking at the 2nd Annual Writer's Conference held in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

• In early March, Dave Riveness will off on a quick trip to Scotland then onto Chicago.

• In mid March, Dave Riveness will be giving a keynote at eBay Headquarters in Northern California.

• At the end of March, Dave Riveness will be visiting Dubai, UAE.

• In April, Dave Riveness will be speaking in both Las Vegas and Orlando.

If you missed out on the explanation of "The Iceberg of Ignorance", didn't get your invitation to join Corporate Jester on linkedin.com, or have no idea what "stumbleupon" is, you now have a chance to catch up as our old newsletter editions are available for viewing.

Each one of us spends much of our lives responding to an environment which consists of other people responding to an environment. This ?meta- environment? which molds our behavior is usually referred to as culture. In other words, we are first and foremost social creatures, ?wired? to interact with each other in groups or organizations through our understanding and conformity to the culture that is present and reinforced within them.

In 1993, Robin Dunbar, Professor of Psychology at the University of Liverpool published ?Co-evolution of Neocortex Size, Group Size and Language in Humans?. Dunbar, through a study of human and other primates, managed to identify a correlation between brain size and group size. He hypothesized that there is a cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships. The research suggests any individual can only have genuine social relationships with 150 other people.

That number, 150, (often referred to as Dunbar?s Number) ends up having an interesting impact on organizational culture. In organizations larger than that number, culture is much harder to be generated and maintained thorough the personal relationships of any one particular individual (for instance, a charismatic leader) but shifts to being generated by the larger group itself.

This explains why, as smaller organizations grow, leaders who might have been able to maintain desired culture through the influence of their personal relationships find an increasing inability to do so. Unless new strategies are adopted, these organizations often reach a break point when internal politics take over, fragmentation occurs, leaders are frustrated, and desired culture starts to break down. In these situations there usually is a lack of recognition that culture itself is being generated and reinforced in new ways. Even if the concept of Dunbar?s Number is understood, the same consequences can occur if the members of the organization are unable or unwilling to address the new cultural realities.

To grow and maintain a desired culture in organizations, especially in those above Dunbar?s Number?, new ways of understanding social networks must be understood and conscious effort must be made to apply that knowledge to create an organization that spontaneously, continuously and honestly, generates its own positive culture.

That said, it is critically important to create Jesters able to recognize, and willing to point out, cultural elements that begin to shift from those desired. They can provide the insight needed into the current state of the culture and wave red flags if any cultural indicators begin to shift away from that which is desired. Equally important to creating these jesters is promoting the value of jestership itself, so when the truth about the culture is spoken, the insights are valued and leveraged.

Earlier this month, Dave was the featured guest on the Business Radio network show "Embracing the Journey" He joined host Karen Humphries Sallick for to talk about the book, jestership and organizational change.