Week 2 - Dunbars Number

2023 Week 2 – Explaining Dunbar’s Number

Welcome to Week 2 of our 2023 Networking Challenge!! How are you doing on your work from last week? Are you making progress? This week we are going to talk about Dunbar’s Number. Dr. Robin Dunbar is a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist. He is known for something called Dunbar’s Number which states that there is a cognitive limit on the number of relationships one person can maintain. That number is 150. He defines a relationship as people that you could show up unannounced and have a drink with, and it wouldn’t be weird. Within that 150 are 4 different layers. There is an inner circle of 5 and that group gets 50% of your time. Then another 15 people get an additional 25% of your time. Then another 30 get 15% of your time, and the remaining 100 get the remaining 10% of your time.

This is important for a variety of reasons. First of all, think about the amount of time you actually have to develop and nurture relationships. We all only have 168 hours in the week. Once you remove time for all the necessities such as sleeping, eating, exercising, commuting, doing your job, and all the other stuff that goes along with being an adult, there isn’t a ton of time left for relationship building. So you need to be very judicious with whom you spend this time. Being thoughtful and strategic about who you are spending your time with is, in my opinion, the most impactful thing you can do to move the needle in your business. So this month, as you are taking stock of your network, keep this in mind. Ask yourself the tough questions about the people you are surrounding yourself with:

·      Are they people that you trust?

·      Are they people you want to see win?

·      Are they people that want to see you win?

·      Are they people that are headed the same place you are, or have they chosen a different path?

·      Are they people that motivate and inspire you, or are they people that drain your energy?