It’s a scene many of us are familiar with – you start a new job full of optimism and hope, envisioning an environment of collaboration and creativity. But as time goes on, the rose-colored glasses come off. You realize the company has become too large and impersonal. Communication flows top-down, not peer-to-peer. Departments are siloed. You feel more like a cog in a machine than a valued contributor.

What happened? Chances are your company grew beyond 150 employees. That magic number marks a threshold where Human relationships start to fray and productivity suffers. But some forward-thinking companies have found a better way. By capping locations at 150 workers, they’ve created the ideal conditions for innovation to flourish.

The Human Scale

The “rule of 150” has its basis in anthropology – it’s the maximum social group size that humans can maintain stable relationships within. Beyond 150, we simply can’t remember who everyone is or form personal connections. British anthropologist Robin Dunbar identified this limit by studying primate brain sizes in relation to their average social group size. He proposed that our cognitive capabilities restrict the number of stable relationships we can maintain – for humans, that’s about 150.

Modern life requires us to interact with more than 150 people, of course. But we only have a close circle of about 5 best friends, 10 close friends, and 35 friends we know by name and interact with regularly. The rest are casual acquaintances and strangers. The same holds true in organizations. Once a company exceeds 150 employees in a location, close working relationships become difficult to sustain.

When Companies Scale Up, Productivity Scales Down

What happens when companies ignore the 150 limit? Innovation and productivity take a hit. Larger groups require more structured coordination – org charts, hierarchies, rules, and processes. Information flows through formal communication channels rather than informal networks. Employees feel less connected to their co-workers and less invested in the company’s success.

Research shows that once a factory exceeds 150 workers, supervision costs rise sharply. In government agencies, effectiveness declines when the average number of associates for each manager rises above 8-10. Even accounting firms with over 150 CPAs in an office show lower productivity. The rule of 150 seems to define the optimal Scale for human collaboration. Beyond that, performance suffers.

However, scaling up is often seen as the path to growth and greater efficiencies. So companies focus on getting bigger and spreading operations across multiple sites. Ironically though, bigger is often not better – smaller, localized teams are more innovative and productive.

The Magic of Small Teams

Smaller groups benefit from greater interaction and familiarity. In a smaller setting, team members are more likely to connect personally. They feel comfortable sharing ideas and collaborating. They have a sense of community and common purpose.

With under 150 employees, a company can more easily:

• Foster relationships built on trust
• Share knowledge quickly through informal networks
• Make decisions through group consensus
• Adapt flexibly to changing conditions
• Collaborate creatively to solve problems

Compare this to a larger bureaucracy, where employees feel anonymous and interchangeable. Information gets filtered through layers of management rather than shared peer-to-peer. Innovation happens through rigid processes rather than organic collaboration.

Keeping locations under 150 preserves the conditions that nurture human potential – mutual care, responsibility, initiative, and creativity. Work feels more meaningful because people know how their contributions matter. The smaller scale also echoes how humans have worked together for millennia – in tribes and villages where everyone was valued and recognized.

How Gore Associates Makes it Work

So how can large corporations enjoy the benefits of small teams? By capping headcounts and spreading operations across multiple sites. Gore Associates is a pioneer of this approach. With over 10,000 employees worldwide, they manufacture everything from guitar strings to medical devices. But you’ll never find a Gore site with more than 150 employees.

Gore clusters its 40+ facilities within proximity so teams can easily collaborate when needed. However, each plant operates autonomously, avoiding the bureaucracy of large consolidated operations. Employees take pride in their plant’s success. And they benefit from the camaraderie and informal communication of a small community.

This structure allows Gore to operate like a nimble start-up while leveraging the resources of a large company. Plants are empowered to experiment and implement ideas quickly. Knowledge spreads rapidly through personal interactions rather than formal training. Associates take the initiative instead of waiting for direction.

Gore’s commitment to small scale isn’t easy or inexpensive. But they understand the payoff – double the productivity and half the turnover of competing companies. By sticking to 150 employees per site, Gore gains in innovation what it loses in economies of scale.

How to Make Small Work at Large Companies

Gore offers lessons for anyone seeking to inject more vitality into their workplace:

Keep locations under 150 headcount. This threshold allows informal connections and collaboration. Avoid swelling sites significantly beyond the 150 limit.

Cluster facilities within proximity. Close proximity makes it easier for cross-functional teams to work together when needed. Community spirit also builds between neighboring plants.

Empower small sites to operate autonomously. Local teams should make day-to-day decisions without bottlenecks. Headquarters provides support through shared infrastructure, systems, and expertise.

Foster networks for collaboration. Relationships may not form automatically in smaller groups. Companies need to facilitate knowledge-sharing across sites through employee networks, alliance teams, and events.

Preserve culture and spirit across the enterprise. As the company grows, nurtures a unifying purpose and set of values. Foster personal connections between employees across locations.

The New Small

In today’s hyperconnected world, we have the ability to work together at scales unimaginable just decades ago. This has led many companies to pursue boundless growth and centralization. But the result is often an impersonal organization out of touch with its people.

Forward-thinking companies are discovering that smaller and decentralized is better – not just for humans, but for sustaining innovation and profitability amid volatility. By adhering to the rule of 150, they are structuring work the way we are wired – for easy collaboration, collective purpose, and community spirit.

In a time when many lament the decline of genuine human connection, the rule of 150 represents a bold step in the right direction. What could your company accomplish if you reorganized around a true human scale? The opportunity is yours for the taking.

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