The Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto “Less is more” to describe his aesthetic tactic of arranging the numerous necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity. But it was designer Buckminster Fuller who adopted the engineer’s goal of “Doing more with less”, his concerns were oriented towards technology and engineering rather than aesthetics….this view fits in perfectly into the current development state of most IT projects. No surprise then why “Less is More” was this years theme at the Web 2.0 Expo New York City.
Recently this whole notion that we can produce more with less has become more and more apparent, at least in my personal observations. I’ve certainly noticed most development teams in the Internet sector are more effective in smaller teams (< or = 5) rather then bloated groups. They produce more functions, require less guidance and management, provide deeper feedback, ask less questions and generally and simply adopt to the changing environment conditions. WHY? … it simply comes down to a mixture of autonomy, ownership, freedom, deeper domain knowledge & less management overhead.
“Less is More” is clearly adopted by the Virgin Group of Companies.
Virgin spearheaded by the famous Richard Branson (who I had the pleasure to meet) is composed by various relationships in more then 400 companies world wide. Virgin started by being a simple mail order CD business in London and in an almost fairy tail like story is now involved in industries ranging from airlines, mobile networks, entertainment and finance. Why has this company been so successful and more importantly why is it still seemingly polished? It’s because they do more with less. Rather then create a Goliath of a corporation, Branson split the group into smaller tighter entities to allow these teams to deliver on what they do best. By not having to worry about larger governance Virgin has the ability to adopt to changes which have taken place in their markets and in return deliver more to their customer. This structure has also allowed Virgin to enter new territory such as Nigeria where they had to work a deal allowing 51% ownership to the Nigerian government to commence a new airline business. Had Virgin been a single entity with more people, process and structure achieving such a deal would be a much more difficult task to accomplish.
That said, the method is not new and certainly not restricted to just Virgins interpretation of it. The Japanese have been practicing this for years where it is better known as a Keiretsu.
It is possible for large corporations to adopt the “Do More with Less” approach but many fail to correctly adopt it due to fundamental flaws during transformation:
- too much too fast: by suddenly changing people, culture & management, companies don’t allow the time for practices to be correctly integrated and end up creating a bastardised group unable to effectively deliver results
- zero collaboration: a fundamental premise for “doing more with less” is effective communication and collaboration within the team and with business partners. Poor collaboration leads to strained relationships, conflict, and bad decision-making.
- unrealistic time lines: established companies rarely have the luxury to down tools and legacy processes whilst they work out how to get Agile methods working and this is a reason why sadly they place unrealistic time lines in their transformation
For the rest of us working in smaller teams for smaller organisations we can all do more with less. Remember:
- remove the constraints: continue to care about what is is that you do rather then focusing on implementing constraints. Think if the next step is going to be red tape for your team or company or if it’s honestly going to mutually benefit everyone.
- less money: we don’t all need money to work effectively. Hardware is cheap enough, software is almost free. Focus on your people.
- less people: keep the good ones, ditch the bad ones. More people will waste time.
- less time: keep it in check. Don’t procrastinate, achieve what it is that you or your team want to achieve in the period you set for yourself.
- less abstractions: everything for purpose, stop talking and start doing. Don’t create the technology and then slap a UI on it, instead build the UI first, iterate and learn from any mistakes
- less features: even google started simple. bring to market something simple to help evaluate. Solve the everyday problems first then bring in your fancy features.
Less is now more so do more with less.
Tags: advice, agile, keiretsu, less is more, richard branson, Software Development, virgin