Our five-minute Customer and Employee Headlines section consistently blows up into a lengthy debate because team members start explaining context and brainstorming solutions right away. How do we keep headlines strictly informational?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The Customer and Employee Headlines section of the Level 10 Meeting is designed to be a rapid pulse check on people and relationships. It is strictly a reporting mechanism, never a discussion forum. When someone drops a headline and then immediately launches into a five-minute narrative about what went wrong and how they plan to fix it, they are hijacking the agenda.

The rule is absolute: a headline is either good news to celebrate or bad news that belongs on the Issues List.

Train your team to deliver headlines in a single sentence. For example: ABC Corp signed their renewal, or John Doe in engineering submitted his two-week notice.

The moment a headline is delivered, the facilitator asks exactly one question: Does that need to become an issue?

If the answer is no, you acknowledge the update, celebrate if appropriate, and move to the next person. If the answer is yes, you drop it directly down to the Issues List with a short, objective title. You do not discuss it. You do not ask for the backstory. You do not offer an opinion. You write it on the list, move on, and let the IDS process handle it later when the team prioritizes the docket.

If a leader begins defending themselves or explaining context during headlines, cut them off cleanly: Drop it down. We will IDS it if it ranks in the top three. Protect the agenda so you actually have sixty minutes left to solve what matters.