Reflections From Watching a Company Right Size Itself

It is soon Christmas time again, and the rightsizing monster is upon us. You sense the tension in the hallways. You hear the difficult conversations. You see people reconsider their roles, their value, and the future shape of the organisation. Some take the consequence, and give in their resignation, rather than continuing living in a uncertain world. It is a strange place to stand. Not inside, not outside, but exposed to the reality of it.

Being in that position made me reflect more deeply on something I have observed for years. Whenever an organisation shrinks or grows, the same pattern becomes visible. A relatively small group of people carry a very large part of the actual work. You notice it in the way conversations shift. You notice it in who suddenly becomes indispensable. And you notice it in how dependent the organisation actually is on a handful of contributors. This tendency fits with what is known as Price’s Law “The square root of the number of people produces half of the work.“, as headcount grows, the imbalance, and inefficiency grows with it. but note its not linear!

If you have 100 people, around 10 drive half of the total output.
If you have 1,000, around 32 do the same.

What right sizing reveals when you are close to it

It becomes very clear that some individuals hold the entire flow together. You notice how everything naturally gravitates toward them. Not because they seek attention, but because they have become the quiet backbone of the organisation. I like to believe that people genuinely want to contribute, yet it is impossible to ignore how unevenly output is distributed.

You also see how this imbalance grows when ownership is unclear, when governance lacks strength, or when processes are muddy. In those moments the same few people end up carrying far more than their share. The work does not disappear. It simply moves toward those who already know how to lift it.

When you stand close to a right sizing process, these patterns become sharper. They reveal themselves with a level of honesty that is almost uncomfortable.

What leaders (and coworkers) often misunderstand

I have seen the fear that right sizing reduces output in a simple one to one relationship. Fewer people equals less work done. It is an understandable concern, but not an accurate one. If your organisation grows from 100 to 200 people, the number of people who produce half of the work grows only from 10 to 14. Not to 20. This is why adding people rarely scales performance. It only scales complexity. Right sizing reveals this truth by contrast. The reduction makes it visible.

What organisations should focus on instead of headcount

If the goal is to increase output, simply increasing staff is not the path. The real path is structure. Someone must own something by default. When ownership is vague, the same few people end up solving everything because they are the only ones who can. Good governance is not documentation. It is clarity. It is flow. It is the removal of uncertainty. It is the thing that lifts the performance of the entire organisation.

WHY RIGHT SIZING IS DAMAGING
For many obvious reasons it is better to avoid ending up in a situation where right sizing becomes necessary. It creates noise, uncertainty and hesitation. The whole organisation slows down. In moments like these we should be protecting the time of the people who actually drive progress and focus on building a system that does not depend on heroes.

Right sizing exposes how fragile a hero driven culture really is. Sustainable organisations rely on structure, clarity and ownership. Not on a few individuals constantly stepping in to save the day.

The square root effect in the world of data

In data work the effect is even easier to spot.

A few people understand the landscape end to end.
A few people handle data quality that affects the whole business.
A few people understand the pipelines that keep products running.
A few people speak both business and technical language.
A few people create clarity where everything else is cloudy.

These individuals become central without ever asking for it.
They hold things together because the structure around them does not.

This is one reason I keep pushing for ownership, governance, modelling and clarity. It is not abstract. It is a practical way to lift more people into effectiveness, instead of relying on the same few.

Right sizing is difficult for everyone, even those who are not directly in the process. It highlights where the organisation depends too much on too few. It exposes how unevenly work is distributed. And it reminds us that output is not shaped by the size of the organisation, but by the clarity of its structure.