I find meetings of greater than or equal to eight people far less productive than
smaller groups even with stroke with a structured action-oriented
agenda is there a maximum amount of people you'd involve in a strategic or
tactical planning group I don't think I don't think there is a maximum out I
think it just has to be controlled and you've got to have you've got to have
some decentralized command or people understand if there's just a bunch of
people the meeting and everyone's kind of speaking and in turn and talking over
each other you're not gonna get anything done so you gotta have there's got to be
one leader who's running that there's got to be some some you know some other
subordinate leaders that and and one person's got to drive that meeting and
make sure that when someone starts going in down rabbit hole okay you guys have a
sidebar conversation afterward let's keep this meeting focused and let's and
ultimately that a decision-maker who can focus the team on a single course of
action get her by behind them the I I agree
and there's certainly times where you can bring too many people in to try and
figure something out I mean that can certainly happen and we we have the good
idea fairies that keep coming around with their good ideas and kids I know
what if he does someone if we did that there's also an interesting dynamic that
you just pointed out that ties into a question that we had earlier or
something that we were talking about earlier which is okay so let's say we
have a meeting and there's 15 people in that meeting if the leader of that
meeting then we'll say steps down into the position of being the the director
of the meeting itself guess what he's doing the whole time he's talking he's
pulling things he's getting and what he's doing while he's doing that is he's
getting in the weeds of what's going on so as he's getting in the weeds of
what's going on he's losing this strategic vision and so if there's 20
people in a meeting and you as the leader are going okay what do you think
what do you think what are you thinking hey no let's get it felt refocused when
you're doing all that traffic copping you're actually losing your strategic
altitude you're not going to be able to see and make a good clear decision so if
there's 30 40 50 people in a meeting you as the leader get down in the weeds
and get down in the trenches and you start throwing down with everyone well
it's not gonna take very long well you're just you're just one of the
troops and you don't see anything whereas if you let let one of the other
leaders let one of the supportive leaders let them step up let them start
to do their thing let them do the direction of meaning you might even tell
them hey run this meeting I would do that I'd be like hey you run this
meeting and then you let them get in there in the trenches and let them try
and sort out ideas maybe their mind gets filled with a bunch of crap and
meanwhile you're in the meeting you're just not running it so there's a big
difference between running the meeting and overseeing the meeting or being in
the meeting or being a leading leader of a meeting so if we're going through a
kill house or if we're going if we're going through a kill house that's a good
example which is you know the room with the building with a bunch of rooms in it
if as the leader you don't say hey I'm gonna run this kill house I'm not gonna
I'm not I'm not gonna direct the movement through the kill house cuz then
guess what you're doing you're directing the movement through the kill house what
you want to do is take a step back and say hey you third fourth fifth and the
chain of command you run this kill house you run the
train and now that guy goes okay cool I got it and now while he's running the
Train doing the work your step back at altitude you can see what's going on you
can hear the frustration you can hear shots fire do you know where people are
moving then you become your the real leader so same thing at a meeting the
dynamics of the meeting or you get more than 10 people 15 people and what you're
doing is you're down there directing traffic it's gonna be really problematic
for you if you have a meeting with 15 or 20 people and you tell someone else to
direct the meeting and run the meeting and you take a step up and you simply
observe you're gonna have a better time feeling like the meeting is effective
and you will get the benefit of hearing all these different voices which is good
which is good to hear all these different opinions and voices and be
able to pick through and sort through and that's going to give you more
benefit than you know what I get there's too much going on in this meeting only
give me two people and we'll make the decisions well there's some people
number of number the sixth person that person had a good input right the 12
person might have to some good input so again is there balance yes are there
certain decisions that you kind of need to take and really dive down and with a
small group absolutely but is it good sometimes to let things air out and let
someone run a meeting and you listen and you learn kind of what the overall
atmospherics of the situation are absolutely that's my answer I think it's
a great but it helps people it helps me to listen to you as well right I mean
when if if you're the boss and you're just sitting back and you're not say
anything and then all of a sudden like hey guys we're getting way off topic
here this is what we need to do here's the direction we need to go got it
everyone's you know back on track whereas if you're in the middle of it
then yeah people just automatically know kind of doing their I'm sure we said
this before and I know we talked about earlier but like when I would say
something on the radio and task unit bruiser when I would say like a
legitimate thing man a would happen if I got on and said everyone get to building
34 now people would go and I one of my favorite things to do one of my favorite
conversations to have on the radio with with either you or stoner was like I
remember you'd be like you'd say hey Jocko we got another mover where I want
to take down building 34 and I'd come up and go do it but that was all I'd ever
said I can do it just like go because I'm not trying to talk right I got these
guys got their situations handled hey he's going outside of it something that
we planned hey jock I want to be able to move to building 34 and take that thing
down do it nah well why do you want to do that you know why he wants to do it
cuz he's got a good reason he's not asking me that cuz it's a fantasy that
he thinks it's gonna be cool no there's a reason and he'll explain that to me
later and if it was something where he's like I want to you know start doing
jumping jacks out here then I might ask why because that doesn't make much sense
to me but to say hey we're in hit building 34 as well what if we ruin
burpees what would that make more sense that that makes a little more sense a
little more sense than jumping jacks yeah like that that absolutely worked a
workforce when used when you said some over the radio like got it we're good
like it decision made everyone's on board and I think it's it's something
that you've got to you've got to focus on what like when a leader talks it
should matter and and I think you can be you got to be
really careful about that and I've certainly been a chief violator that is
like going off a to dip to many different directions but that you did
extremely well attacking a bruiser and it works and every leader should be very
Congress to them yeah the less you talk to more people listen