We have successfully run EOS® with our leadership team for three quarters, but our middle managers are struggling to run their departmental Level 10 Meetings™, and engagement is tanking. How do we get our department heads to run these meetings with the same discipline we have?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Cascading EOS® to your middle managers requires a structured approach that avoids overwhelming them with corporate bureaucracy. The biggest mistake is handing them the tools and expecting them to run. You must actively coach them through the transition. Start by having a member of the leadership team attend their first few departmental Level 10 Meetings™ as an observer, not as the facilitator. Your role is to guide the department head on keeping the meeting on time, maintaining the strict agenda, and mastering the IDS® process. Ensure they understand that the Level 10 Meeting™ is their tool to run their department, not a weekly report-back to executives. Keep the tools simple at this level. Focus heavily on the Scorecard, To-Dos, and IDS®. Do not force them to master the V/TO® right away. Let them build the muscle of weekly accountability first. If their engagement is tanking, it is usually because their meetings have devolved into status updates rather than active problem-solving. Teach them to push status updates to a pre-meeting read and use the sixty minutes of IDS® to actually solve their frontline frustrations. When they see that the meeting makes their daily jobs easier, buy-in will follow naturally.