I (and almost everyone else) have spoken frequently on the importance of smart collaboration and good teamwork. A recent column in Forbes magazine, “Team Management: Think Small and Agile” by Rich Karlgaard, highlighted one element of creating optimal teams that I had neglected: team size. Karlgaard stresses that in an age of swiftly moving technology, teams become more important because humans do not evolve as quickly as the rate of Moore’s Law. People are the slowest-moving parts in complex organizations, effectively becoming the gating factor. To open this gate, you need to form nimble teams that not only make the people less of a gate, but also turn them back into resources.

The Two-Pizza Rule

There is an optimal size for every team, and it is usually smaller than you think. It starts with Jeff Bezos’ “two pizza” rule (there is some argument as to who created the term, but I always defer to Bezos): If it takes more than two pizzas to feed the team, the team is likely too big (As I am based in Chicago, I may want to drop that to a one-pizza rule, because two deep-dish pizzas can feed a lot of people).

Karlgaard points to two reasons the two-pizza rule works: Continue reading →