Seven claimed to be the optimal size of a decision-making group

The three authors of Decide & Deliver: 5 Steps to Breakthrough Performance in Your Organization got some publicity in the Harvard Bus. Rev., Jan./Feb. 2010 at 26. The squib implies that, in a different context, the Seven Samurai hit upon the perfect number of fighters to make good decisions as a group. Seven is not just a lucky number but a productive working team.

Moreover, “Each additional member reduces effectiveness by 10%” Whether or not this precise quantification of an extremely complicated notion holds, it seems intuitively right that if an in-house lawyer has more than six other teammates, all kinds of logistical issues and challenges start to bog down the team.