We are preparing for our next quarterly offsite, but our leadership team has grown to nine people and our sessions are turning into long, unproductive debates. How do we keep our offsite focused and productive when the leadership team has gotten too large?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leadership team of nine is at the absolute upper limit of effectiveness. When teams get this large, offsites easily devolve into status management and posturing rather than open, honest issue solving. To fix this, you must first review your Accountability Chart.

Ask yourself if all nine people actually belong on the leadership team. Often, founders add seats to the leadership team as a reward for tenure or to make people feel important. This is a mistake. The leadership team should only consist of the core leaders who run the major functions of the business, typically three to seven people.

If your Accountability Chart is correct and you truly need all nine, you must enforce strict meeting discipline during your quarterly offsite. Utilize the IDS process to solve issues. Do not allow members to tell long stories or give departmental updates. If an issue is raised, immediately identify the root cause, discuss it efficiently, and solve it.

To keep the team focused, assign a strong facilitator or work with a professional EOS Implementer. A neutral facilitator will call out individuals who are dominating the conversation or checking out.

You can also leverage conative profiles to manage the room. For example, if you have high Fact Finders who drag out discussions with endless data, table those issues for offline research and keep the offsite moving.