Can we bring silent observers from our middle management team into our session days, or is participation strictly limited to the core leadership team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

There are no silent observers in my session room. Every single person in the room must be a fully active participant. If someone is in the room, they must have a seat on the leadership team, have a voice, and be willing to engage in healthy, honest conflict. Bringing observers into the session completely changes the dynamics of the room. It breeds artificial harmony and prevents the leadership team from being completely open and vulnerable. For the system to work, the leadership team must be able to discuss sensitive issues, challenge each other, and solve deep problems without worrying about an audience. If you want to train middle management or prepare them for future leadership roles, the best way to do that is by cascading the tools to them outside of these sessions. We do not use our session days as a spectator sport. Every person present must be fully committed to the work, willing to take ownership of Rocks, and ready to participate in the IDS® process. If someone does not belong on the core leadership team, they do not belong in the session.