When a team is too big

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about these questions: What is a team? How large is too large and how small is too small? What qualifies a missions? How to weigh the cons and pros of specialist vs generalist in the age of GenAI? There’s a story for several years back that keeps back to my mind. What makes it interesting is the fact that there was no master plan. Yet with a few cultural elements, the story took such an interesting trajectory that it shaped my leadership model. Ever since, I have been an advocate of continuous improvement by preparing the environment instead of being the wise-ass who has the ultimate solution to all problems. Today I want to tell that story with these key takeaways: A generalist team is less likely to have internal dependencies acting as bottlenecks, blockage, and single point of failure. Generalist teams are more productive and resilient. Handovers introduce the risk of misunderstanding, delay, miscommunication, and diluted accountability. Clear ow ... Read full article.