The Stag Hunt Team
Build the smallest high-trust team that can still take down the stag.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 68%
The mechanism comes from game theory. Society's real game is not the prisoner's dilemma, where the incentive is to defect, but the stag hunt: hunting alone gets each of you a rabbit, while hunting together takes down a stag with far more meat for everyone. The inputs are a stag worth hunting, a small number of highly competent people who can each be relied on completely, and the trust conditions that make cooperation rational, meaning a fair agreed split and confidence you will not be ripped off. The process is to size the team to the minimum that can do the job, recruit on the mission rather than the terms, and lead by making people want the work instead of instructing them. Because everyone carries their own weight, each person's creativity runs at maximum, and the output is a group of ten to a couple of hundred doing what was considered impossible.
Origin
Extracted from Naval, where Naval Ravikant contrasts the prisoner's dilemma with the stag hunt and describes what he actually pitches when recruiting people into a company.
Core principles
- 01Real cooperation is a stag hunt, not a prisoner's dilemma: together you get the stag, alone you get a rabbit.
- 02Use the minimum group size that can do the scope of the job.
- 03People are built to go on missions in small groups and will self-actualise doing it.
- 04Management tells people what to do; leadership makes them want to do it.
- 05Trust is the input that makes the stag reachable at all.
How to run it
- 1
Pick a stag
Define a goal big enough that no individual can reach it alone but a small committed group can. Without a real stag, cooperation has no payoff and everyone rationally chases rabbits.
Pro tip State the outcome that would be considered impossible for a group this size; that is the stag.
- 2
Size to the minimum viable group
Use the smallest group that can do the scope of the job you set out to do. Extra headcount dilutes the reliance each person feels and turns the hunt into an organisation.
Pro tip Ten to twenty is the shape human beings evolved to operate in.
Watch out Adding people to reduce risk usually increases coordination cost faster than capability.
- 3
Establish the trust conditions
Cooperation is only rational where people are confident they will get their fair share and will not be ripped off. Agree the split, the rules and the reputations up front.
Pro tip Settle how the stag is divided before the hunt, not after the kill.
Watch out In low-trust conditions people default to tiny solo ventures, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid.
- 4
Recruit on the mission
Pitch what is actually true: a small group of highly competent people, more autonomy, more fun, more upside, and grueling in the short term. Do not gather people and issue orders; teach them to yearn for the sea.
Pro tip Say the short-term cost out loud; it makes the long-term claim believable.
Watch out The motivator has to be real and tied to what they want out of life, or it will not survive contact with the work.
- 5
Keep the bar visibly high
Tell candidates they can interview anyone sitting on the floor, and that if that person does not seem brilliant they should not join. The offer only works if it is true.
Pro tip Making the bar checkable converts a claim into evidence.
Watch out One bad hire invalidates the whole recruiting pitch, because candidates can now test it.
- 6
Lead rather than manage
Take the time to learn what each person wants out of life, find the overlap with what needs doing, and inspire them to go do it. Management is telling people what to do; leadership is making them want to do it.
Pro tip The overlap between their objectives and the work is the only durable motivator.
Watch out Manufactured inspiration is transparent and worse than plain instruction.
In the wild
One of Naval's recruiting moves is to keep the bar so high that he can invite a candidate to pick anybody sitting on the office floor and interview them on the spot. The instruction is explicit: if you do not think they are brilliant, do not join. The pitch is not a claim about team quality, it is an open invitation to verify it, which only a team that actually clears the bar can make.
→ Candidates self-select in on evidence rather than promises, and the bar stays high because breaking it would break the pitch.
Naval points to Lift Off, the story of Musk and his team building the first SpaceX rocket, and The Macintosh Way, about Jobs and his team building the first Macintosh, alongside Soul of a New Machine. He argues these are inspiring because they describe the thing people deep down crave: a small team of highly competent people, each pulling their weight, everyone able to rely completely on everyone else, creativity at maximum, and an extraordinary outcome on the far side.
→ The books work as a recruiting frame because they name the experience candidates already want.
Common mistakes
Managing when you should be leading
Issuing orders and dividing tasks gets compliance but not the discretionary effort a hard mission needs. Leadership means finding what each person wants and connecting it to the work.
Lowering the bar to fill seats
The high-bar recruiting pitch is checkable, so a single weak hire destroys it for every future candidate. Growth pressure is the usual reason the bar slips.
Hunting the stag without agreeing the split
If people are not confident they will get a fair share, they rationally keep chasing rabbits and the cooperation never forms. Settle the division and the trust conditions before the work starts.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders assembling or leading small teams on hard, high-upside missions where every member has to be relied on completely.
Not ideal for
Large process-driven organisations where the work is decomposed and interchangeable rather than mission-shaped.
From the transcript
“Real life, societies tend to be what's called a stag hunt. A stag hunt is if each of us are hunting by ourselves, we can…”
“You want to function with high-trust people in small groups to solve really hard problems.”
“Management is telling people what to do and leadership is making them want to do it.”
From the episode
Sell the Truth