During one of my consulting projects, we had a very influential and intimidating client. So to dazzle him, a lot of senior leaders were added to the team.
And what was the end result? A top-heavy team, which resulted in the poorest work I have done in my consulting career.
And I saw the same bloating in another organisation, when the project was considered too important.
Once the team size bloats up, everything becomes painful. To set up a meeting, you need to align a dozen calendars.
In every meeting, people feel compelled to say something. And since you can’t ignore what people say and offend them, you waste time managing their ego. And sometimes, you do dumb things just to please them.
People either add value or destroy it — they are rarely “net zero.” So throwing lots of people onto a problem is almost never the right answer. Yet, that is what you do when you have a lot of resources.
And this holds true for life in general — when we don’t have enough money or resources, we often wallow in self-pity. But we don’t realise that over-abundance can be almost as bad as scarcity (and sometimes, worse).
You need enough, but not more.
– Rajan