• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Kim Hermanson PhD

Facilitating Creative Breakthroughs

  • Home
  • Books & Courses
    • Books
    • Audio Courses
    • Courses to License
  • Work with Me
    • Doorway Sessions
    • Metaphor Readings
    • 15 Minute Energy Shift
  • Media
    • Interviews
    • Articles
    • Blog
    • Youtube
  • About
  • Contact
  • Show Search
Hide Search

The Magic of Odd Numbered-Groups (As Opposed to Even-Numbered)

May 16, 2012

Last week I was interviewed about Getting Messy by Jefferson Public Radio in Southern Oregon. Here’s my interview:

http://www.kimhermanson.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/The_Jefferson_Exchange_5_07_2012_Hour_1.mp3

The listeners who called in had all kinds of interesting things to say about teaching and learning. Perhaps the most intriguing was one man who spoke of how “three” or “five” is a magic number in group situations. He said that when there are three people or five people, the group can come to a decision more quickly than if there are an even number of participants. His comment reminded me of the work I’ve been doing recently on “bridging polarities.” Teaching and learning are polarities, and Getting Messy is about bridging the teaching-and-learning polarity (finding our way to “third space” where we are both teachers and learners). But when groups come together, there are also many other potential polarities that might be present (men/women, young/old, conservative/liberal to name a few). What happens when you have three people, five people, seven people, and so on, is that you have a “mid-point.” An even number of people (metaphorically speaking anyway), suggests that the group could split evenly into two opposing camps.

In any case, I send a big thank you out to Jefferson Public Radio and their listening audience. It was great fun (…and a little messy!)

Previous Post
Next Post

Teaching, Coaching & Facilitating getting messy, jefferson public radio

Primary Sidebar

Blog Categories

  • Art
  • Books
  • Doorway Sessions
  • Earth/Nature
  • Imaginal
  • Inspiration
  • Learning & Creative Process
  • Metaphor
  • Miscellaneous
  • Social Change
  • Teaching, Coaching & Facilitating

Blog Archives

Blog Tags

aesthetic space albert einstein artist beauty beginner's mind Book Passage carl jung coaching consciousness courage creative breakthrough creativity deep knowing depth psychology eckhart tolle esalen institute form genius george lakoff getting messy goethe heart imagination james hillman john o'donohue key image marshall mcluhan martin foss mihaly csikszentmihalyi play poetry psychology of creativity psychology of metaphor right brain robert henri shamanism singing Sophia Center soul calling square energy stanley kunitz strength thinking third space transformation

Get clarity, see opportunities, and uncover resources that can’t be known any other way.

Copyright © 2023 Kim Hermanson, PhD | Website by Digital PDX