Honest Signals: How They Shape Our World (Bradford Books)

Our sociometer-based labeling of group and task roles, however, wasn't as accurate as the human experts until we took social context into account. When we looked at everyone's signaling during a thirty-second slice of the exercise, then the sociometer readings could label the roles as accurately as the human experts

(Sound familiar? Interest and heightened activity are associated in most animals.)

Roles are best read from the social circuits, rather than from the signaling of individuals.

between people.' While people can assume many social roles, I will focus on a core group of four social roles: exploring, listening, teaming, and leading.

through the social network. When we again aggregated information across the group, but now using the private, subjective estimates of information flow, we got essentially the same estimates as when using objective social information.

known that teams with a centrally coordinated structure-the classic "org chart" structure-are good for fixed, well-defined tasks, but not for complex tasks requiring flexibility.' Conversely, teams with richer interconnections are good for tasks requiring flexibility.

control.

charismatic people are unusually expressive, sensitive, and have strong internal

us that our minds are also substantially governed by the unconscious signaling within the social fabric that surrounds us.