Small Teams

For as long as I can remember, conversations with executives of large organisations always circle back to "how can we instil 'the founder mindset' in our organisation?'. This mindset includes attributes such as ambition, self-starting energy, a "can-do" attitude, a "why not" attitude, an eagerness to learn, a natural curiosity, and a relentless drive to take action. Whilst easy to describe, it is super hard to instil and maintain in large teams. Hard, not impossible. The trick, hiding in plain sight, is smaller teams with clear outcome targets.

Smaller Teams with Clear Outcome Targets

Technology companies have known this for some time that smaller teams with clear outcome targets are more effective. Feature teams, 'two pizza' teams, call it what you like, all point to same basic first principles:

1. Small teams communicate better and easier.
2. Having an exciting, stretching and clearly measurable outcome to achieve, motivates action.

These principles are not new, and endless amounts have been written about them. However, it is essential to repeat them because very few organisations actually do anything about it.

Why Organisations don't implement smaller teams with clear outcome targets

There might be many reasons. One hypothesis is that knowledge workers have operated in a "command & control" framework for so long that it's hard to give up the perception of control. The perception is created from the fact that all organisations have scarce resources, and they have to coordinate their efforts and only invest in things that get them to the enterprise goals. This is valid, but it's based on a few assumptions:

• Having large teams makes it easier to prioritise & deploy scarce resources.
• Central control drives better outcomes.
• It's easier to get performance data on larger units.

Whilst these assumptions may be true in some cases, CEOs and executives are asking the question about wanting a more "entrepreneurial culture" when discussing how to grow the company faster, signalling that smaller teams might be better suited to situations where high growth aspirations are clear.

The opportunity hiding in plain sight

The opportunity hiding in plain sight is to treat each cell in a large organisation like a startup. A cell is the smallest possible viable unit of business, and if in theory, you could break up your company into small units as standalone businesses (cells). Examples of cells could include your current business units "as is" (if they are mono-product-lines and mono-distribution-channels) or existing business units broken down further into product lines or distribution channels.

Step 1: Divide your business into Cells

Businesses larger than startups should divide themselves up into cells. Ignore "shared services" and assume each cell could in-source services if needed.

Step 2: Treat each cell like a startup

Evaluate each cell like you would a startup, including purpose, problem / need, solution, product, market, timing, team, etc. Invest in each cell like you would in a startup. If a cell is growing, invest more. If not, don't.

Step 3: Figure out how the cells form a viable eco-system

In most large organisations business units are siloes that consume some of the central resources such as group capital, group strategy, finance, HR, and IT.

However, largely the business units do not work with each other and are in competition with each other because they are competing for the same scarce central resources (attention, capital, functional support).

Amazon (amongst others) saw this happening and changed quickly (recall Jeff's famous 'API email') by forcing each team to make their services available as an 'API' to other business teams. Note this is easier if you are a tech native company, much harder if not.

Change what you measure. How cells work with each other is also important, not just how each cell wins in the market.

This food for thought should compel you to take action. It's time to break away from the traditional "command and control" structure and embrace a more agile and entrepreneurial approach. Especially now as knowledge workers' execution power is exponentially improving through AI.

Implementing this approach won't be easy, but the benefits are clear. Smaller teams are more nimble, efficient and innovative. By treating each cell like a startup, you can create a culture of ambition, self-starting energy, and relentless drive to take action.

If you are ready to take your organisation to the next level and want to discuss how to implement this approach, feel free to send me a direct message. I would love to hear your point of view.