The Paradox of Cooperation

Why bigger teams sometimes get less done.

To add creative energy to a company we add more people.

But the bigger the organization gets the more effort it takes to channel. Processes and rules stack up. The rigidity doesn't leave room for wisdom and creativity.

So if we're not careful, more people can mean less creative energy.

At the Product Operations Festival I talked about this paradox and how to identify opportunities to make more room in our systems for creativity.

TOPICS AND INSPIRATION

Wisdom needs room to breathe. (Barry Schwartz TED Talk)

Entropy is the tendency of energy to spread. (Veritasium video)

Shopify's priorities:

1. Build great products to make commerce better for everyone.
2. Make money to do more of number one.
3. Never reverse numbers one and two.

Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Motivation. Intrinsically motivated people are more creative. Intrinsic motivation is stoked through mastery, autonomy, purpose. (Drive by Daniel Pink)

Shopify's GSD (Get Shit Done) system phases: Proposal, Prototype, Build, Release. (Glen Coates in Lenny's newsletter)

 

Shopify has its own internal operating system called GSD.

It is built and maintained by a team of 7 engineers. It is honestly amazing how good it is.

— Kaz Nejatian (@CanadaKaz) August 22, 2023

 

Chaos Monkey wiping all large meetings from Shopify staff calendars. (Fast Company)

Slide design lifted from Minx.