Founder Fundamentals 4/10 – Stop Playing Workload Tetris
Workload Tetris is a popular game among leaders. I've played it. I thought I was good at it, too. The goal of the game is to squeeze maximum deliverables into the existing workforce by cleverly slicing and slotting work items. It feels satisfying. It feels like, by way of your skilled conducting, you are improving output. And early on, it's true – when a founder tells everybody what to do, it works. But as a company grows, Workload Tetris becomes the wrong tool. It still feels satisfying, which makes it hard to let go of. But instead of increasing output, it decreases it.
Here's why.
Workload Tetris optimises for utilisation. Utilisation works when the sequence of work is stable and repeatable – think conveyor-belt environments. Obviously, this is never the case in a startup.
It can also work in more dynamic environments, but only as long as there is full player control, i.e. as long as the founder aligns everybody’s priorities and synchronises or sequences their efforts. But this takes time and only works for a handful of people before the founder becomes the bottleneck or starts to let go of balancing everybody all the time.
At that point, collaboration and sync need to emerge from within the team(s) rather than being steered from above. The Tetris pieces need to figure out where to go themselves. And because they each have their own point of view and only see their immediate surroundings, they need to negotiate before agreeing on a placement. This works with pieces falling slowly – but with pieces falling quickly, gaps open up, and the screen overflows fast. More utilisation leads to less output.
When exactly this shift happens depends on many variables, but in my experience, at around 20 people, you should start walking away from seeking utilisation. What should you optimise for instead? Speed. Instead of stacking work, focus on racing one item at a time across the finish line as fast as possible. From Tetris to Mario Kart.
How?
Speed is a function of focus and clarity: the fewer items are in the air and the clearer their order, the faster the org aligns on what to do now – and the faster work gets finished.
You give focus by avoiding any ambiguity about what Kart gets raced now. You give one item priority, and you back it up by not starting other things until it’s done. Beware of small sins. Anything you squeeze in has an implied or perceived priority.
You give clarity through prioritisation rules that help the org to balance driving the Kart with their day-to-day workload. These must be simple, easy to apply, and known by everybody.
The following work well:
- Prio 1: Emergencies
Life-threatening events. Fires that, if not extinguished, will burn down the house. They must be clearly marked as such – and they need justification to prevent abuse.
- Prio 2: Ops-As-Is
Whatever people do today that generates revenue. You can never stop serving the customer. This does not include improvements to the status quo.
- Prio 3: The Kart
The one improvement of the status quo that matters the most. It can only be one at a time. There can be a backlog of what comes next, but work overlap must be avoided.
- Prio 4: Everything else
Teams and individuals who can't contribute to the above are free to do what they think is best for the company.
One thing, finished, then the next. When an org experiences that kind of focus, something shifts. Speed is a rush — even at work.
PS: This is not the same issue as 2/10. Even if you understand that decisions are icebergs, you might still try to cram too many into the channel by cleverly slicing them. But workload tetris and iceberg blindness compound.