Our weekly Level 10 Meeting™ is highly efficient, but our department managers are pushing back on rolling it out to their teams because they say they have no issues to discuss. How do we fix this?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a department team claims they have no issues for their weekly Level 10 Meeting™, it is a major red flag. It rarely means their department is running perfectly. More often, it means they do not understand what constitutes an issue, or they do not feel safe bringing problems to light.

In the EOS® framework, an issue is not just a disaster. An issue is any obstacle, opportunity, administrative task, or question that needs to be addressed. It can be a positive opportunity that requires coordination, or a minor process bottleneck that slows down their daily work.

To break this deadlock, the department head must lead by example. They should populate the Issues List before the meeting with operational questions, training gaps, or process improvements.

You should also look at their department Scorecard. If the team is missing their weekly numbers but still claiming they have no issues, there is a clear disconnect. A missed metric is automatically an issue that must be dropped down to the IDS® portion of the meeting for resolution.

Teach your managers that a blank Issues List is actually a sign of stagnation. Encourage them to reframe issues as opportunities to improve efficiency. Once they see that identifying and solving small problems weekly makes their daily jobs easier, the pushback will disappear, and the meeting will become their most valued tool.