The Disruptive Nature of Small, Cohesive Teams
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In the ever-evolving landscape shaped by artificial intelligence (AI), organizations find themselves at a crossroads, requiring not just bold innovations, but also increased velocity. Recent research suggests that one of the best ways to do this, is by leveraging the power of small, cohesive teams. Cohesion represents a tightly-knit group of individuals working collaboratively toward shared goals. It implies a strong sense of belonging, trust, and cooperation among team members, fostering a supportive group dynamic. Under the right conditions, cohesive teams are able to move faster and innovate more boldly.
Amazon calls these, "two-pizza teams" as they need to be small enough to share a meal—specifically, no larger than what two pizzas can feed for lunch. Lean, agile teams are able to streamline communication, operate more efficiently, and facilitate quick decision-making, which are all pivotal elements to experimenting and iterating on new solutions.
The Speed of Cohesive Teams
Smaller teams often exhibit better communication and adaptability, fostering a dynamic, startup-like culture within the organization. Just consider, in a team of six individuals there are only 15 total connections to foster. Double the size of the team to 12 individuals and the number of total connections amplifies to 66. With smaller teams, coordination and communication happen in the flow of the work. As opposed to what Asana calls the “work about work.” Which suggests that 60% of a person’s time is spent on work about work and not on value-added activities. It seems as if there is a coordination tax for larger teams.
By limiting the size of a team, organizations can cultivate a more entrepreneurial environment where individuals can collaborate closely, take ownership of their local work, and navigate challenges with greater velocity. Research illuminates that small, agile teams exhibited a 37% increase in speed in delivering new products to customers, when compared to the industry average. Methodologies like Scrum, Kanban, and Lean Development provide frameworks that facilitate close collaboration and leverage each team member's expertise to rapidly deliver new solutions.
However, even without these disciplines, small teams deliver faster. One classroom study, conducted by professors from UCLA, Penn State, and UNC-Chapel Hill ran a set of experiments instructing teams to complete a building task using LEGO bricks. The study then compared results from a team comprising two individuals to a team of four people. The smaller team accomplished the task 20 minutes faster, finishing in 36 minutes compared to 56 minutes for the larger team. These studies and others, illustrate the inherent benefits of smaller, more cohesive teams to actively learn and deliver with speed when operating in a new environment. Which is more important than ever as many organizations are playing catchup on the AI landscape.
The Disruptive Power of Small Teams
The inherit benefit of small teams isn’t limited to speed. They also have the potential to be more disruptive. Researchers from University of Chicago and Northwestern University conducted a comprehensive analysis spanning more than 65 million papers, patents, and products to evaluate the effects of team size. Their findings were profound. Smaller teams tended to be more disruptive in science and technology with new ideas and opportunities. These researchers assigned a disruption score to each team and then analyzed it against team size, revealing that disruptive ideas consistently decline as the team size grows. Small teams are more likely to produce disruptive breakthroughs, while larger teams are good at advancing existing ideas forward.
This is exactly what we see with the organization below, which has demonstrated itself to be one of the marketplace leaders in AI (see figure 1). This organization was designed to disrupt with a tremendous bias toward small, agile teams that are loosely connected to one another across a number of future growth areas. The network as a whole, is a subset of the broader organization and represents 650 researchers, technologists, and scientists from eight different product segments (represented by the colored nodes). The smaller teams, represented by the smaller clusters of four to eight people, are focused on building out breakthrough AI solutions. While the larger teams, mostly near the center of this network, are dedicated to integrating and advancing these solutions more broadly. Both are necessary, but most organizations over index on the latter and are left wondering why they can’t keep pace with the market.
Figure 1. Marketplace Disruptor
While this organization is fairly unique in its design, it does demonstrate a different way of working, inspiring other organizations to reimagine the way they work when attempting to boldly disrupt markets at speed. It is also important to note, that this approach only works when others in the center of this network and in other parts of the broader organizational network are focused on scaling these solutions.
Fostering Speed and Disruption
To harness the full potential of small, cohesive teams, focus must extend beyond team size toward deliberately cultivating entrepreneurial activity. This necessitates creating an environment centered on challenging each other, where team members feel at ease pushing one another to embrace bolder thinking. While it's true that small teams naturally build stronger cohesion, this trust is most beneficial when the team collectively engages in challenging each other. Encouraging bold thinking is essential for eliciting groundbreaking solutions and disruptive innovations, even if this process may occasionally be uncomfortable for team members.
The organization above does this by frequently asking difficult questions, “How might we make this bolder?” Or, “How could this be then times more innovative?” Other organizations apply the "devil's advocate" role or run “post-mortems” to challenge current thinking. These approaches, when combined with cohesive teams, create an environment where different perspectives flourish, critical thinking prevails, and teams are encouraged to challenge the status quo, therefore catalyzing disruptive innovation.
A few things organizations can do to enable these dynamics are:
Limit Team Size: When trying to be disruptive and move with speed, keep teams small and agile, adhering to the concept of "two-pizza teams,” where the team size is no larger than what two pizzas can feed for lunch. Smaller teams tend to exhibit better communication, adaptability, and efficiency.
Streamline Communication: Emphasize streamlined communication within small teams to reduce coordination challenges. This involves minimizing "work about work" and ensuring that communication happens in the flow of the work.
Encourage Entrepreneurial Activity: Extend the focus beyond team size and deliberately cultivate entrepreneurial activity within small teams. Create a challenge-based environment that pushes team members to think creatively, take ownership, and push boundaries.
Ask Challenging Questions: Frequently ask challenging questions within the team to stimulate disruptive thinking. Examples include asking how a project can be made bolder or how innovation can be increased tenfold. Introduce a "devil's advocate" role or run "postmortems" to challenge conventional thinking.
Stimulate Critical Thinking: Foster an environment where different perspectives are valued. Encourage critical thinking by challenging the status quo and pushing for disruptive innovation. Create mechanisms, such as bold brainstorming sessions, to ensure a variety of viewpoints are considered and challenged.
As organizations navigate the uncharted waters of the AI era, a new way of working is essential. Small, tightly-knit teams are more than just crucial—they can serve as the strategic cornerstone for achieving success. These teams, characterized by their unmatched speed and a proclivity for disruption, have the potential to propel organizations toward swifter and more audacious advancements. On the landscape of dramatic change, the future belongs to those who recognize and harness the transformative power of small, cohesive teams.
