Our weekly Issues List is consistently dominated by problems originating from sales and operations, causing finance and HR leaders to disengage. How do we ensure our Level 10 problem-solving addresses total enterprise health rather than just the loudest operational departments?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When the Issues List is continuously dominated by operational fires or sales pipeline emergencies, leaders in finance, HR, and administration mentally check out. The Level 10 Meeting™ then degrades into a departmental status meeting for operations, leaving strategic corporate risks unaddressed.

This imbalance usually happens because sales and operations generate immediate, noisy pain, while administrative and financial issues develop silently. A customer complaint demands attention today; an outdated employee handbook, unhedged interest rate risk, or broken onboarding process can fester for months without causing an obvious explosion.

To restore enterprise balance, the Integrator must actively enforce issue prioritization across the entire business. During the prioritization step, before diving into IDS®, the team selects the top three issues to solve first. The Integrator must challenge the room if all three selected issues belong to the same operational silo. Ask the team: If we only solve three things today, does fixing this delivery hiccup truly protect enterprise value more than addressing our cash flow variance?

Furthermore, prompt silent functional leaders to submit proactive issues. Finance should submit issues regarding DSO creep, tax compliance, or margin erosion. HR should submit issues regarding culture drift or turnover risk.

If an operational issue is purely departmental, it should not be on the leadership Issues List in the first place. Push departmental mechanics down to the departmental Level 10 Meeting, and keep the executive Issues List focused on cross-functional, enterprise-wide obstacles.