We have rolled out departmental Level 10 Meetings across our entire company, but we are struggling with how to handle issues that departmental teams cannot solve. How do we build a clean escalation path from a departmental issues list up to our leadership team without creating a massive bottleneck or cluttering our own weekly agenda?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To keep your leadership Level 10 Meeting™ from becoming a dumping ground for every departmental problem, you must establish a strict escalation filter. Issues should only climb to the leadership level if they meet one of three criteria: they require a budget expansion, they affect multiple departments, or the departmental team has genuinely hit a wall and lacks the authority to solve them. When a department team cannot solve an issue, their leader must formally own the task of bringing that issue to the leadership team. The issue is then added to the leadership team's weekly issues list. The leader must state the issue in one clear sentence, explaining exactly what roadblock they need the leadership team to clear. Conversely, you must also master the art of cascading issues down. If an issue lands on your leadership team's board but is actually an operational detail that belongs to a specific department, send it down immediately. The departmental leader must put it on their own weekly agenda for resolution. This bi-directional flow protects the leadership team's focus while ensuring that problems are solved at the lowest possible level on your Accountability Chart. Do not let your weekly meeting pulse become a bottleneck. Train your managers to solve issues within their own circles first, reserving your leadership table for the most critical bottlenecks.