Jeff Bezos shares his tips on how to get the most out of your work.
The Amazon president created a “two-pizza rule” for his team when he first started the company 30 years ago, a mantra that could boost career and financial success.
“We try to keep our teams to a size that can be fed by two pizzas or less. We call it the ‘two-pizza team rule,'” Bezos previously said.
The billionaire entrepreneur argues that larger teams can be difficult to manage and people can become overwhelmed by the increased responsibility, but for smaller teams of around 10 people, this rule ensures that teams of workers are the right size to be most efficient and productive.
“Ideally, this is a team of fewer than 10 people. Smaller teams minimize lines of communication and reduce bureaucracy,” explains Daniel Slater, head of culture and innovation at Amazon Web Services. According to the Daily Mail“The two-pizza structure also creates greater team accountability. Two-pizza teams don’t hand off something they’ve launched to another team to run.”
“That’s why the Two Pizzas team needs to know every part of the service, with a clear charter and a tightly defined mission,” Slater concluded.
At Amazon, any team that grows beyond this two-pizza limit is split into two teams, and the responsibilities of the original group are divided between the newly restructured team.
Bezos said the guide helped the revolutionary retailer maximize efficiency and scalability, two pillars of its success, and grow into one of the world’s largest companies.
The two-pizza rule isn’t just good for business: Financial experts At GoBankingRates The idea is to encourage individual workers to think of their time as money.
Purchases should be thought of in terms of how long it will take to earn them. For example, if you make $40 an hour, it will take 30 minutes of your workday to buy a $20 pizza. Keeping this in mind can help those on the road to avoid unnecessary spending and keep perspective on their wealth.
Bezos’ rule also talks about breaking down big goals into many smaller tasks. The same approach ensures that individual employees don’t take on more than they can handle and can quickly switch from one task to the next.
But some business leaders, such as Mentimeter CEO Jonny Warstrom, criticize this strict adage.
“I think Jeff Bezos’ two-pizza rule is outdated and needs to be revised,” Warstrom says. He wrote in Entrepreneur magazine.
“Limiting the number of people in a meeting doesn’t increase productivity,” the CEO explained. “In fact, it hampers it. Small teams limit the opportunity to get broad and diverse perspectives.”
