Figure C6d.4 The Human in a social, economic, and safety order

Individual Behavior (IB) and computers 

Individual behavior is a mix of responses to external and internal stimuli. People react in different situations and express other emotions like anger, happiness, love, etc. By entering the project and IT support, another problem will come to the fore. It is the behavior of the human brain. How is the human brain different from a computer?

The computer (generally IT) works in the instruction mode (programs) and processes the information. Our brain works differently.

Our brain can set its instructions, which may not correspond to what we know about the data and how it should be processed (for example, according to other people's opinions or the assumption related to the quality of education of the recipient of the information). Summary: our brain has specific behavior, so we must respect each other to balance our behavior and the computer's capacity.

Team Behavior (TB) and recommendations

A team is an essential unit for any work on a project. A group is a small number of people with complementary skills committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach. They hold themselves mutually accountable.

Effective teamwork is built on the following ten characteristics (by www.digitalsparkmarketing.com). That's why it's good to remember them here:

1. Clear direction (decides on team goals and desired outcomes first. Use it for a clear path for the team you select. Start at the endpoint: What is the result you want and why? Leave the team flexibility to develop the best way to get there).

2. Open and honest communication (essential communication is listening) is not just a way to find things out. It's also a sign of respect (e.g., to send the message that your conversation partner is valuable). Listen as you mean it. Demonstrate that you're listening. Paraphrase, re-state and react to what you hear. Ask for clarification. Get involved).

3. Support risk-taking and change (good teams support appropriate risk-taking and experimentation for change. They look at first-time mistakes as opportunities for learning).

4. Defined roles (choose the most vital team members to carry out the project).

5. Mutually accountable (teams accept responsibility as individuals and as a team. They don't blame one another for team mistakes and failures. No one should spend any time, useless time, on personal justifications).

6. Communicate freely (the manner of communication — how freely and frequently team members communicate — determines the team's effectiveness. Put the more freely you talk to your fellow team members. The more comfortable you are in sharing insights and ideas).

7. Common goals (a characteristic of any successful team is that members place the common goal above individual interests. While scaling individual targets is excellent for personal morale, teams succeed when they understand, appreciate, and work with a common purpose).

8. Encourage differences in opinions (having divergent views within a team enhances team performance; a diverse group is its competitive advantage. Imagination and new ideas stir creativity).

9. Collaboration means close collaboration is a trait shared by every successful team. The idea is simple enough: the more you collaborate and communicate, the more you create.

10. Team trust (trust in the team is an adjunct of effective communication; there can be trust between team members only if they can air their views freely. It is why organizations often undertake team-building exercises that put team members in positions of trust).

Collective Behavior (CB) and risks

The phenomenon of deindividuation is a product of sociologists' and psychologists' studies, but their analyses are somewhat different.

Social psychologists emphasize the role of internal psychological processes.

Other social sciences, such as sociology, are more concerned with broad social, economic, political, and historical factors influencing each society.

Our interest is in the people behavior role of projects both in the stage of project preparation (on its abstract forms and its virtual impacts) and project implementation (on its material value and direct monetary effects).

Deindividuated situations can reduce accountability because people hidden within a group cannot be easily traced or blamed for their actions.

Thus, deindividuation effects are sometimes viewed as socially undesirable (e.g., rioting). However, research has shown that deindividuation also strengthens adherence to group norms.

Sometimes those norms conflict with society's standards, but they are not always negative. Indeed, the effects of deindividuation can be rather dangerous: e.g., "releasing the decision-making processes of politicians without civic control") or can be even positive, e.g., "participation of people in the preparation and implementation of projects aimed at better living conditions in their surroundings, in cities and the countryside."

Notes: In the late 1960s, Philip Zimbardo came up with the theory that people in a crowd or group experience a state of de-individuality, i.e., they do not follow their conscience and judgment but play a role in the crowd or group and often act more aggressively and cruelly, than how they would act as individuals.

Another definition, deindividuation, is the phenomenon in which people engage in seemingly impulsive, deviant, and sometimes violent acts in situations in which they believe they cannot be personally identified (e.g., in groups and crowds and on the Internet).

Human behavior is surprisingly changeable and still more and more brings numerous surprises in the intentions of these definitions.