Our leadership team has crept up to nine members as we have promoted department heads, and now our Level 10 Meetings are turning into slow, tactical status updates instead of strategic problem-solving. How do we restructure our team back to a healthy size?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A leadership team of nine people is too large to remain healthy, cohesive, and functional. When a team gets that big, healthy conflict becomes impossible, meetings drag on, and people stop speaking openly. To fix this, you must restructure your team back to a healthy size of three to seven members.

Start by looking at your Accountability Chart, not your people. Designing the chart must be an objective exercise based on what the business actually needs to run efficiently and prepare for an eventual exit.

Ask yourself what the core functions of the business are. Typically, this is sales and marketing, operations, and finance. Combine related departments under a single seat on the leadership team. For example, instead of having four different operational managers on the leadership team, create one seat for a Director of Operations who represents all those departments.

Once the structural seats are defined, use the GWC tool to place the right people in those seats. Explain to those who are moving off the leadership team that this is not a demotion, but a structural change to make the company faster and more agile. This restructuring allows your core leadership team to engage in high-speed problem-solving during their Level 10 Meetings, which accelerates your results.