Years ago, I was stuck in a long-ass meeting. The sort of big company meeting with a dozen people sitting around a long table. I was both bored and frustrated. “We have a lot of smart people in here – and we’re not going anywhere.”

The meeting might euphemistically be called “building consensus”. But really it was teams butting heads, pushing their agendas. And it was a waste of time and talent.

But how could we avoid it? Isn’t regular impasse an inevitable part of large company life?

No, it isn’t inevitable. After many years working with companies big and small, it is clear to me now that organizational structure is at the root of these deadlock situations.

The problem is organizing by function. Consider that the toughest challenges for any company are multifunctional. Organizing by function leaves no one with enough control to tackle these situations. It’s like the separation of powers in American government. While this is great for preventing acts of tyranny, it is crap for a company taking actions of decisiveness.

Rather than organize by function, companies should organize by “mission”. This means setting up teams based on serving customers, external or internal. And making them mostly self-contained.

To put it more succinctly, here’s the 80% Rule for Designing Teams.

Each team should be equipped with the resources and authority to deliver 80% of their mission without outside dependency.

Think back to the last time your company faced an urgent situation: Christmas sales season, a major product launch, a PR disaster. Everyone likely got together, regardless of their team, and pulled together.¹ The key organizational ingredients were that a) everything needed to tackle the problem was in the room and b) there was a clarity of purpose at that moment.

Best of all, there was probably a bit of thrill, despite the pressure and stress. That was the thrill of getting sh** done.

The aim of the 80% Rule is to make sure you and your teams feel that thrill every day.

The next several posts in this blog will explain this in more detail.

1. Organizing by function creates overhead you don’t need
2. Litmus tests: are your teams set up well or badly?
3. Functional organization can sometimes be good for you
4. Summary: responsibility and authority should sit together

¹ Or maybe they didn’t, the company went under and you’re now looking for a job. Ouch. My sympathies.

GS Dun works with existing companies to launch and build new ventures. Our name is short for “get sh** done”, so while we can talk the talk, we prefer to keep our meetings short and just get on with it.