How Many People Should I Include to Be Successful in My Activities

How to involve the right number of people is a concern shared by many involvers. If you involve too many people, you might not get the work done effectively because there are too many opinions to consider. If you involve too few, you might not get new thinking. You might also miss people who will help implement and coordinate the work.

Don't assume that limiting the number of people involved will save you time and money. This assumption overlooks the costs associated with neglected points of view, limited perspectives, and the resistance that occurs when important people are left out of the conversation. And don't assume that involving lots of people guarantees you success.

A printing plant was transforming itself to a team-based organization. Although they involved customers and suppliers in their redesign, they neglected to involve the company's sales force. Why was this important? Because the sales force determined where products would be printed. As the plant's culture began to shift, the sales force became nervous because things were done differently in the team-based plant. Consequently, the sales force was reluctant to assign product to this plant. Excluding the sales force's voice in the transformation had unintended negative consequences for the plant.

As a general rule, the number of people to include depends on five key questions:

• How much energy do you want to create?

• How large is the scope of the task?

• How much time is available?

• How many people are needed to keep other organizational functions running?

• How much money can you spend?

If you want to create a lot of energy, larger groups are the most effective. These are best for system analysis and visioning. Smaller groups are best for doing detail work and working on smaller jobs. Furthermore, a large group is useful when you want to create a critical mass for change within the broader organization or community.

Consider, too, that the number of people you involve is likely to change over time. If the scope of the work is big, you will involve larger numbers of people. If it is narrower, then fewer people can do it. Many initiatives involve both large and small groups at various points in the life of the work.

The Naperville School District that was working on a vision for education in the twenty-first century had several groups of different sizes:

• A small combined group of four from the school board and administration determined the kind of visioning process they wished to engage in. They then organized a planning group of around twenty people to represent all constituencies. This group formed committees to work on logistics, communication, and invitations.

• A large group of 300 came together to create the vision.

• Ten task forces of approximately eight to fifteen people were formed by volunteers around the themes of the vision to recommend ways to implement them. The task forces added new members who were interested and had a member of the planning team to coordinate with the larger group.

Involving people is not always such a complex undertaking. For example, moving a piano requires a small group of people to move the piano from here to there. You need a few strong bodies and at least one person who can think visually so the piano doesn't get stuck when you're trying to round the corner going up the stairs.

In working with clients, we use a concept called "critical mass" to identify the people that you must involve in order to succeed. Critical mass means enough of the right people to accomplish what you need to in any particular effort. What is your critical mass for this work? From the original list of brainstormed invitees, who must be involved? These are the people who could make or break your effort.

Then move to the next layer of people. Who would be nice to keep involved? These people would make everyone's job easier, but if push came to shove, you could get by without them. Finally, is there anyone who would be okay not to involve? What are the consequences if they are not involved?

It may be helpful to fill in the worksheet below to get clear on these questions.

Using this tool helps you determine the number of people that you need to involve and why you need to involve them. This can also help you be respectful of their time if you are clear about how you wish to involve them.