We agree on solutions during IDS, but by the next week, we realize we only solved a symptom and the issue is right back on the list. How do we audit our Solve phase before moving to the next item?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your leadership team is constantly resurrecting the same issues week after week, your Solve phase is failing. You are likely agreeing to superficial agreements just to get things off the list, rather than implementing permanent, structural fixes.

To prevent this, the Integrator must introduce a strict quality control check at the end of every IDS discussion. Before you mark an issue as solved and assign a to-do, the facilitator must ask the room three specific questions. First, does this solution address the root cause, or are we just treating a symptom? Second, is everyone truly on the same page with this decision, or are we just compromising to avoid conflict? Third, is the resulting to-do clear, actionable, and assigned to a single owner?

A true solve means the issue goes away forever. If a solution requires changing a process, updating a scorecard metric, or retraining a staff member, those steps must be captured as concrete to-dos. If you merely agree to do better or talk to someone, you have not solved anything.

Make it a rule that if an issue returns to the list within thirty days, the team must spend the first part of the next IDS session analyzing why the previous solution failed. This discipline forces the team to think deeper and avoid lazy, short-term band-aids.