Team Size Matters
Looking inside a Lean organization you’ll find a variety of teams managing daily work, opening and closing projects, and solving problems.
It’s teamwork that makes the (Lean) dream work, so establishing strong, highly-functioning teams is a must.
When forming teams, it is important to think of your team leaders as teachers. In the classroom, the student/teacher ratio is extremely important. If the ratio of students to teacher is too large the teacher is more likely to lose control, the flow of information is disrupted, and individual satisfaction of the student is lost.
A properly functioning Lean workplace works much like a classroom so it is important to keep your team member/team leader ratio in balance. Having more teams with fewer members will help to keep everyone engaged and involved.
Rule of Thumb
Keep teams to about 5-7 members. Creating a ‘leaders as teachers’ environment and developing solid team structures, with proper team sizes, creates an organic learning environment that will keep your enterprise in motion – continually learning and providing better customer experiences.