We have rolled out Level 10 Meetings™ to our department heads, but their weekly lists are barren because they claim they communicate constantly throughout the day and have no issues to IDS®. Yet, major execution errors are still happening. How do we force these departments to actually use their Level 10 Meeting™ to solve systemic issues rather than bypassing them?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The we talk all day excuse is a symptom of a team that is mistake-prone and reactionary. Constant ad-hoc communication is not problem-solving. It is usually just firefighting, which is the exact opposite of running a disciplined business. When department heads claim they have no issues to IDS® but balls are still being dropped, they are hiding their operational friction.

To break this habit, the leadership team must enforce accountability through the departmental Scorecard and Rocks. If a department is missing its metrics or falling behind on its quarterly Rocks, those are automatic issues that must be on the list. The departmental facilitator must stop accepting a blank Issues List.

Start audit-checking departmental Level 10 Meetings™. If execution errors are happening, look at the departmental scorecard. If the scorecard is green but operations are failing, the scorecard metrics are wrong. If the metrics are red and no issues are on the list, the team is failing to follow the EOS® process.

Instruct the departmental facilitators to proactively drop these failures onto the Issues List. Force the team to sit in the ninety-minute meeting and look at the blank space until someone has the courage to list a real problem. Once they realize the Level 10 Meeting™ is the only venue where they can actually get permanent resolution to their daily headaches, they will stop bypassing it.