Principle 2: Specialization and Teamwork
You can only be world-class at one thing at a time; but you can't specialize if you can't team.

We have only so many "brain cycles" each day. We can only think so many thoughts; we can only read so much; we can only remember so much.

Therefore, we can only be world-class experts at one thing at a time. We may rotate among specialties in the course of our careers. But at any point in time, we must concentrate on a single profession to master it.

Some of the benefits of specialization include:

• Productivity: Specialists are more efficient. Their increased productivity translates into cost savings.

• Speed: With all their experience, specialists have ready answers and don't have to climb the learning curve with each new challenge. And they know the latest methods and technologies in their field, which can leverage their time. Things get done faster.

• Quality: Specialists produce higher quality, because they know how. Their products are more usable, more capable, more maintainable, and have lower life-cycle costs.

• Risk: People with more competence and experience deliver results more reliably, and with fewer risks.

• Innovation: Specialists can keep up with the literature, and they're the first to learn about emerging technologies and techniques. As a result, the pace of innovation improves.

• Reduced stress: Specialists experience less stress. They may be under pressure to produce a lot, but they're confident of their abilities. So they're more productive, stable, and happy.

• Motivation: With their greater competence, it's easier to excel and rise up the ranks in their fields. And since specialists are more valued in the market than generalists, they have better career opportunities.

The whole point of forming organizations is to permit people to specialize. When specialists in a diverse range of fields are brought together, an organization has both depth and breadth.

Within some practical limits, the more that people specialize, the better they (and the organization) perform.

Conversely, an organization of generalists performs no better than an equal number of individuals.

Specialization is key to performance. But there is a catch....

The more people specialize, the more they become interdependent. For most things, specialists can't "go it alone." Put simply, you can't specialize if you can't team.

Teamwork is often the gating factor. If an organization isn't good at cross-boundary teamwork -- assembling just the right mix of specialists onto teams, and getting them to work well together -- then groups must be independent rather than interdependent.

In such a "siloed" organization, each profession is scattered among the various groups that need it. This reduces specialization, since each member of that profession within each silo must cover the entire profession, not focus on a sub-specialty.

Without teamwork, the benefits of specialization are lost.

The best organizations maximize specialization and invest in effective cross-boundary teamwork.