Too Many
Cooks in the Kitchen
Written by Will on May 29th, 2007
At what point do you have too many cooks in the kitchen to get anything
done? Is this problem specific to organizational size, or does it
happen with small teams as well? I tend to think it is a by product of
larger organizations, where for better or worse, there are layers of
bureaucratic overhead that all have opinions and want to voice them,
but it can happen anywhere, at any time. I have worked for both large
organizations and small, and my experience has been that this sort of
problem increases dramatically in direct correlation to the overall
size of the organization.
I have stumbled across a couple of blog posts in the last few days that
have prodded me to think about this in more detail. Seth Godin has a
great post on who you should hire and he states that most fast moving
organizations (these can be large or small) are really just looking for
people who can get things done. This drives home the point that at the
end of the day, things need to get done, and too many cooks stymie
production. Why is it so hard to just make a decision and get moving on
it? The absence of a decision is bad, and by not making it and moving
on, you are simply belaboring actual work. To drive this point home,
Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Blink” deals with gut decision making and how
accurate it can be, and I think it lends itself to this notion of too
many cooks in the kitchen is a very bad thing.
When it is all said and done, one person needs to step up and make the
decision and democratically let everyone else in the room know that
they are the decision owner and they have said the final word and now
let’s get to work!
6 Comments
1. Tom 29/05/2007
This makes me wonder. Can there be only one “decider” when the
organization is on the larger scale or can there be multiple deciders
for various decisions. What happens when one persons decision starts
impeding others from getting things done?
Git-r-dun
2. MatthewVB 29/05/2007
Having read Gladwell’s book, I couldn’t agree more. I make my decisions
with my gut - from hiring to projects and I haven’t been let down yet.
It’s a great way to live life!
3. Will 29/05/2007
Tom,
I think even in a “large” organization, ultimately there needs to be
one decision maker who has ultimate authority. With that being said, if
that person cannot handle that power nor should they have that power
and they are indecisive, then they could definitely impede things
getting done.
Matthew,
I agree, go with the gut and most times it will be the right thing!
4. tom f 13/11/2009
thou shalt not have no other gods before ME!
Sims cannot be in charge.
5. Fernando Mccuin 30/11/2009
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6. Marianna Minecci 13/05/2010
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say it is great. Thanks!