Our middle managers are complaining that running their own departmental Level 10 Meetings makes them feel completely isolated from the company's overall vision, as they cannot see how their local issues roll up to the leadership team. How do we bridge this communication gap without cluttering our leadership agenda?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This isolation happens when departmental Level 10 Meetings™ operate in a vacuum. To bridge the gap, you must establish a clear, structured mechanism for issues to flow up and down your Accountability Chart.

First, use your leadership team meeting to identify decisions or updates that must be shared. At the end of your Level 10 Meeting™, during the cascade messages section, explicitly list what needs to be communicated to the departments. Middle managers will then share these updates during the headlines portion of their own departmental meetings.

Second, empower departmental teams to push unresolved issues up. If a department team faces a systemic issue that they do not have the authority or resources to solve, they must formally agree to push it to the leadership team. The department head, who sits on the leadership team, then adds this item to the leadership Level 10 Meeting™ Issues List.

This bidirectional flow keeps everyone aligned. It ensures that departmental teams see their daily tactical efforts directly linked to the bigger picture on the V/TO®.

For owners looking to exit the day-to-day operations, this structured flow is non-negotiable. It proves that the organization can communicate and solve problems through its systems rather than relying on the owner to act as a human hub-and-spoke messenger.