Miller, Peter. The Smart Swarm: How Understanding Flocks, Schools, and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making, and Getting Things Done. Avery. New York. 2010.

Notes

• Self-organizing

  • decentralized control - rely on local knowledge
  • distributed problem-solving - use simple rules
  • multiple interactions - amplify faint but important signals

• Collaboration

  • seek a diversity of knowledge - rely on local knowledge
  • encourage friendly competition of ideas - use quorum thresholds to improve decision accuracy
  • use an effective mechanism to narrow your choices

• Communication

  • have a way to show a short-term group memory to all team members to help everyone keep track of the bigger picture in the heat of the moment
  • people who talk to one another give each other better chance to make smart decisions

• Indirect collaboration

  • build on something that someone else starts
  • "Here's what I have now. Do you have anything to add?"

• Adaptive mimicking

  • individuals in a group pay close attention to each other to pick up signals about where each is going and what each knows
  • coordinate action
  • communicate knowledge
  • copy action
  • seven appears optimal for spreading information across a flock or school without adding unnecessary "noise"
• Concerns
  • make sure people have a way to get accurate information so that each person can keep personal control and know what to expect (prevent group from becoming a mob)
  • add in some randomness in individual behaviour to limit getting stuck in problem-solving ruts
  • maintain individuality - value in a group comes from our authentic and original selves, our unique experiences and skills