We leave our weekly Level 10 Meeting with full agreement and high ratings, but within forty-eight hours, I find out that our leaders are having side conversations expressing disagreement with the decisions we made. How do we eliminate this "meeting after the meeting" and ensure true alignment before anyone leaves the room?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The meeting after the meeting is a dangerous sign of artificial harmony. If your leaders are nodding along in the room but complaining in private afterward, you do not have true alignment, and your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ is failing to drive real accountability.

To kill this behavior, you must establish a cultural rule of disagree and commit. During the IDS® portion of your meeting, the facilitator must push for healthy, unfiltered conflict. If a decision is being made and a leader is staying quiet, the facilitator must ask them directly, do you fully support this decision?

Furthermore, when you conclude your meeting with the wrap-up section, use the rating step to smoke out lingering doubts. If someone rates the meeting a nine or a ten, but you later discover they are undermining a decision, you must address this head-on as a core values issue.

A rating of eight or lower requires a brief explanation of what could have been better. Encourage your team to use this rating to voice any unresolved concerns.

Once a decision is finalized and the meeting ends, everyone on the leadership team must speak with one voice outside of the room. No second-guessing, and no side conversations. Enforcing this level of discipline is critical to building a cohesive, high-performing leadership team.