Cap coordination at 15-25% of total hours — new…

Set an explicit coordination budget as a percentage of total available hours (15-25% for most knowledge work), and require any new coordination mechanism to fit within that budget or displace an existing one.

When This Fires

When designing team or personal coordination structures
When meetings, check-ins, and reviews feel like they consume most of your week
When someone proposes adding a new coordination mechanism (meeting, report, review)
During time audits when evaluating how much time goes to coordination vs. production

Common Failure Mode

Uncapped coordination growth: each new coordination mechanism is added without removing any existing one. "We need a Monday planning meeting" (30 min). "Let's add a Wednesday check-in" (30 min). "Friday retrospective would be valuable" (60 min). Each individually reasonable — but the cumulative coordination load keeps growing while the budget for actual work shrinks.

The Protocol

(1) Calculate your current coordination budget: sum all time spent on meetings, status communication, handoffs, reviews, and synchronization per week. Divide by total available hours. (2) If >25% → you're over-coordinated. Identify the lowest-value coordination mechanisms and eliminate them until you're at 25% or below. (3) If 15-25% → you're in range. Any new coordination mechanism must displace an existing one of equal or greater cost. (4) If <15% → you may be under-coordinated. Check for misalignment, rework, or information gaps that more coordination would prevent. (5) Review the budget quarterly: as team size, complexity, or project phase changes, the optimal coordination percentage shifts. Adjust the budget, but never let it exceed 25% without explicit justification.