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The Two Pizzas On An Ikea Table Rule
In the early days of Amazon, so the story goes, Jeff Bezos introduced the two-pizza rule. The idea was that no team should ever grow larger than can be fed by two pizzas. In practice that is about eight people.
Across the Atlantic, progressive healthcare organisation Buurtzorg has built a 15,000 strong workforce of teams that rarely grow larger than ten members. Using this method they have developed one of the most efficient organisations in the world, that also delivers the best outcomes and happiest workers.
It turns out that there is some serious science behind this way of thinking. Smaller teams create stronger connections, better communication and better results. Once you have more than ten people to work with the number of connections you must maintain grows exponentially and, as a result, productivity falls.
I’ve used this rule of thumb to think about the way my teams manage work and noticed that it really does get harder when teams scale, so I’ve tried to sub-divide the work where I can.
But I have had more immediate success when applying the principle to meetings, asking the question, “who needs (or doesn’t) need to be here” when I notice the attendee list creeping up. The simple act of scaling down the attendees at meetings can dramatically improve the way that they function. And it is something…
