During our leadership Level 10 Meeting™, we realize that an issue we are trying to solve is actually a tactical problem that belongs to a specific department. What is the clean, efficient handoff process to cascade this issue down without creating confusion or duplicating work?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your leadership team identifies an issue that is better solved at the departmental level, you must resist the temptation to solve it yourselves. Trying to resolve every departmental problem at the leadership level is a form of micromanagement that slows your business down.

To handle this transition cleanly, follow a simple three-step cascading process:

- First, stop the discussion immediately once you realize the issue belongs to a specific department.
- Second, assign a To-Do to the leader who owns that department on the Accountability Chart. That To-Do should simply state to add this issue to their departmental Level 10 Meeting issues list.
- Third, remove the issue from your leadership Level 10 Meeting issues list.

This process ensures the issue is not lost and is sent to the correct team. When the department head runs their weekly meeting, they will bring this issue to their team for a thorough IDS session.

The departmental team is closer to the daily work and is far better equipped to find a practical solution. This keeps your leadership meetings focused on high-level alignment while empowering your departments to own their local execution and solve their own problems.