Start Small, Think Big Culture

It's been so consistent this last few weeks/months, with the Live Show

We all talk Innovation, Engineering and Manufacturing and each time the discussion ends up around People. Change adoption, moving at speed, a preparedness to make mistakes in order to learn and move forward.

And so, it feels like the appropriate time to talk Teamwork

Start Small, Scale Fast

But, as is so often the case, the smaller they are, the harder they can be?

Is it the size of the team that defines the challenge ahead of us? I liken so many things to a boat looking to go from A to B:

It’s part of a journey and a 1st stage that needs to know whether speed, thoroughness or overall new user experience that is the major influencer. I’ve been on projects where it’s speed at all costs, 100% attention to detail and keeping everyone in the business happy along the way. Of course, most owners/senior managers want it all, however frequently budgets make that an impossible mountain to climb.

On the whole, history has taught us that smaller teams produce better.

Smaller teams move faster, iterate at a higher frequency, and innovate more. There are many examples of small teams achieving amazing things.

• When Facebook purchased WhatsApp for then an incredible $19 billion, the company’s 32 engineers had created a platform that was used by 450 million users.
• The VW Golf GTI, one of the most famous hatchbacks in history, was created by just a team of eight.

Jeff Bezos is famous for his “two-pizza rule” at Amazon. His thinking was that any team that could not be fed by two pizzas was too big.

Generally, it is fairly easy to understand how a smaller team can be more effective, as communication is easier and decision-making can be accomplished more quickly.

Nevertheless, there are a number of challenges that are unique to small project teams. It helps to keep these issues in mind and come up with creative solutions when you are leading project work. In my experience, they include:

Lack Of Attention

Small unfortunately can go unnoticed! Of course, unless you’re on an ego trip, this isn’t a problem. However, if you need quick decisions and senior management is more focused on the big projects then it becomes a problem!

Every project has a significant effect on the business and this needs clearly understanding at a senior management level prior to and at the very first steering committee meeting.

Project Manager Strain

“A Jack of all trades and a master of none” is often how the PM can feel as many of the larger project roles end up bundling into their responsibility.

The true PM takes pride in “not on my watch”, however now rather than “catching everything” each day and continuing to look ahead to ensure your ship stays on course, the PM can end up deep in the roles that would normally be undertaken by someone else. Excessive administration such as procurement, vendor negotiation etc and then of course playing the role of the business and business consultant/analyst.

To overcome this challenge, the PM must be briefed about the client’s situation and learn as much as possible about the subject matter before the project kicks off. Of course, this is an ideal world and the reality is each project is full of surprises and it’s more of a mindset of the small project PM, to expect the unexpected!

Less SMEs, More Generalists

Smaller project teams have a broader level of skills.

Design skills bundling, design integrity during implementation, people change, and testing frequently give way to more generalized skills. When the depth of knowledge is lacking, the team becomes dependent on outside specialists (solution vendor) for information.

It’s at this point, to solve this, I’m going to go out on a limb and always challenge what’s critical to moving the boat forward, rather than paralysis through analysis and perfection!

Over the years, I’ve seen so many projects and businesses lose their opportunity to move forward by over-estimating what’s critical to the project momentum and moving the business in the right direction. Keep it simple, build momentum and then layer on top

At the end of the day, what’s really important to the project and business? The quicker the wins, the quicker the momentum and the more who'll jump aboard.

In summary, if you can think about the Project Manager and be ready to support when needed, have senior management always, always ready to make fast decisions and have some design “peer review” skills on hand you’re going to be a long way along to handling the great challenges.

The Smaller The Better

Every company has experienced a project that was either delivered at twice the budget and in double the time, or never actually delivered against its objectives and was eventually trashed. There are many reasons why these large programs fail, but one of the main causes is they simply break down under their own weight of people and running costs.

One way to improve the effectiveness of projects is to reduce the size of the teams mobilized to tackle them. In other words, it might be time to make your project teams smaller?

Andrew Sparrow

I drive Product Innovation & Optimization projects for companies using cutting-edge tech & software solutions to keep them at the forefront of the customer-centric 4IR

I blog, vlog & podcast passionately about our need to innovate & thrive, about managing the product lifecycle (PLM) & ever improving smarter manufacturing (MES/MOM/Digital Manufacturing).

I love & thrive in working with some of the world's largest companies such as Airbus, Capgemini, Dassault Systemes, Ericsson, JLR, TOTAL, Siemens, Sony, Subsea7 & Unilever, to name a few

I'm a big people-person & have spent my life meeting as many people & cultures as I can. At my last count, I am lucky enough to have visited & done business in over 55 countries