Our leadership team has grown to nine people, and our Level 10 Meeting has become highly inefficient because too many voices are chiming in on every single issue. How do we restructure the room to maintain traction without alienating key leaders?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The sweet spot for a leadership team is three to seven people. Once you reach eight or nine members, your Level 10 Meeting™ efficiency plummets. Discussions become circular, decision-making slows to a crawl, and the ninety-minute pulse feels bloated and exhausting. To restore your traction, you must first review your Accountability Chart. A large leadership team is often a sign that you have structural redundancy or have placed department heads in leadership seats who belong at the departmental level. You must ensure that only the core leaders responsible for the major functions of your business sit at the leadership table. If your structure is correct but you still have a larger team, the facilitator must enforce strict rules of engagement during IDS®. Not everyone needs to comment on every issue. Before diving into discussion, identify who the true owner of the issue is and who has the direct expertise to help solve it. Encourage other team members to listen actively and only chime in if they have unique value to add. Remind the team of the Same Page pillar in Our Charter, which requires everyone to agree with and support the final decision, even if they did not actively participate in every step of the debate. If certain leaders consistently have nothing to contribute to leadership-level issues, it is a strong signal that they should be running departmental Level 10 Meetings™ instead, allowing you to streamline the main room.