My department heads have started holding informal pre-meetings on Monday mornings to coordinate their updates and align their stories before our actual Level 10 Meeting. How do we stop this and bring raw, honest debate back to the team?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Holding pre-meetings to coordinate stories is a clear indicator of a lack of trust and a fear of conflict on your leadership team. When leaders feel they must align privately before the Level 10 Meeting™, they are trying to present a united front to avoid uncomfortable debates during IDS®. This completely defeats the purpose of the weekly pulse.

The Level 10 Meeting™ is designed to be the place where raw, authentic discussion occurs. If the real debate is happening in secret pre-meetings, your official meeting will feel staged, flat, and unproductive. You must address this behavior directly.

Bring this issue to the top of your Issues List at your next meeting. Call it out honestly. State that you have noticed pre-meetings are occurring and explain why they are damaging to the company. Emphasize that the leadership team must be comfortable bringing raw, unfinished ideas and disagreements directly to the Level 10 Meeting™.

Remind your team of the commitment to Trust and the Same Page rule in your company charter. We do not need coordinated stories; we need truth. If there is a disagreement between departments, it should be brought to the weekly Issues List so the entire team can solve it together openly.

Eliminating pre-meetings requires fostering a safe environment where healthy conflict is celebrated rather than feared. When your leaders trust that they can disagree without political repercussions, they will bring their raw ideas back to the table where they belong.