Can we bring middle managers or departmental heads into our quarterly sessions to observe, or does having extra people in the room ruin the executive team dynamic?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is highly tempting to bring middle managers or department heads into our quarterly sessions as observers. You might think this helps with alignment or professional development. However, I strongly advise against it. Having extra people in the room fundamentally breaks the leadership team dynamic.

Our sessions require absolute vulnerability, raw honesty, and deep trust. When you introduce non-leadership observers, the dynamic shifts. Your executives will naturally start performing, filtering their thoughts, and holding back their true opinions to maintain appearances.

To keep our sessions effective, we maintain strict boundaries:
- Only the core leadership team members who sit on the Accountability Chart are allowed in the room.
- We keep the group size small to ensure everyone participates fully in every debate.
- We rely on a structured communication plan to cascade the session outcomes to middle managers immediately after.

If you want to develop your middle managers, we can train them on the tools separately. But during our strategic session days, we must protect the privacy and focus of your leadership team so they can do the hard work of steering the company.