In our departmental Level 10 Meetings, frontline managers constantly jump in to answer every issue themselves during IDS instead of facilitating peer problem solving. How do we break this bottleneck habit?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a frontline manager tries to answer every issue raised during a departmental Level 10 Meeting, they transform a collaborative pulse into a bottle-necked question-and-answer session. This exhausts the manager, creates an organizational dependency, and conditions frontline employees to act helpless.

The manager must shift their role from chief problem-solver to meeting facilitator. In EOS, the person facilitating the meeting does not need to have the answer. Their primary job is to enforce agenda discipline, extract input from the room, and guide the team through the three steps of IDS: Identify, Discuss, and Solve.

To fix this dynamic, train managers on two facilitation rules:

- Pass the question back: When a team member raises an issue and looks at the manager for the answer, the manager must immediately ask the room: What does the rest of the team think is causing this?
- Speak last: The manager should intentionally withhold their perspective until frontline peers have debated the root cause. If the team discovers the right answer on their own, the manager simply confirms the resolution and assigns the To-Do.

If a manager continues to jump in reflexively, executive leadership should attend one departmental meeting as an observer to coach them privately afterward. Running a Level 10 Meeting requires building problem-solving muscle across the entire Accountability Chart. When departmental leaders step out of the spotlight, frontline staff step up, and operational issues get solved closer to the customer.