C12 · proof of concept
Why the fifteenth organization is different from the fifth.
A coalition or a listening exercise with fifteen organizations is not "three times as much work" as one with five. The number of coordination pairs grows with the square of the number of parties. Past twenty or so organizations, the work stops being more of the same and becomes something structurally different — a shift people inside it tend to feel before they can name.
15 organizations, 105 links, about 18 hours per decision cycle.
Moving from 5 organizations to 15 is a tripling of parties and a tenfold increase in coordination pairs. From 15 to 50 is a three-fold increase in parties and a twelve-fold increase in pairs. Somewhere in that range, coordination-as-individual-relationships stops being feasible, and the work has to be carried by something else — a coded synthesis, a backbone organization, a public atlas, a convening body with a fixed role.
This is why the same listening method at 15 organizations and at 58 organizations produces structurally different artifacts. The difference is in what the math of coordination permits.