The Magical Number Seven, plus or minus two

George Miller wrote a classic paper in 1956 titled, “The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information.” In it, he argued that there was a limit to what our short-term memory could hold and that limit, for most people, seems to be around 7 plus or minus two. That is between 5 and 9.

A lot of research since then has supported his position.

An Application of this principle:

When I created core values for our nonprofit orphan care organization and wanted staff members and kids to remember it easily, how many did I choose? Seven!

You will find this notion taught in a lot of leadership literature. When creating a document like core values, don’t exceed 10. Better yet, keep them between 5 and 9.

About the Author

Dr. Kenneth Acha, MD, DMin.

Kenneth’s mission is to use medicine, spiritual formation, poverty alleviation, and leadership development to help people live lives to the fullest. He holds two doctorate degrees: the first is in medicine and the second is in spiritual formation. He is a practicing U.S. physician, an assistant professor of medicine, and a senior professor of leadership and spiritual formation at Servants University (SU). Kenneth is also a core faculty in the department of orphan care and poverty alleviation at SU and the founder and president of the Kenneth Acha Foundation, an organization that has helped thousands of orphans in Cameroon and trained many leaders since 2005.

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