Our leadership team has grown to nine members, and our weekly Level 10 Meeting has become highly inefficient because too many voices are trying to weigh in during the IDS portion of the agenda. How do we keep our weekly pulse productive when the room is too crowded?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your leadership team grows too large, the IDS portion of your Level 10 Meeting can quickly devolve into a chaotic, inefficient debate where too many voices compete to be heard. This dilutes the quality of your decisions and wastes valuable time. To fix this, you must first look at your Accountability Chart. A healthy leadership team typically consists of three to seven people. If you have nine or more people in your weekly meeting, you likely have non-leadership roles sitting at the table. You must make the tough decision to restructure your Accountability Chart so only the true department heads who run major functions of the business are on the leadership team. If your structure is correct but the room still feels crowded during debate, the facilitator must apply strict IDS discipline. Not every person needs to comment on every single issue. The facilitator should actively manage the discussion by asking only those directly impacted by the issue, or those with specific expertise, to speak first. Additionally, the team must agree to support the leader who owns the seat where the issue lives. Once that leader and the Integrator agree on a path forward, the debate must end and the To-Do must be assigned. Do not allow your weekly pulse to become a committee-driven debate. Streamline your team, enforce tight facilitation, and keep the focus on finding the fastest path to a permanent solve.