When departmental teams run their weekly Level 10 Meetings, they frequently run into issues that require leadership team approval or cross-departmental authority. What is the exact protocol for escalating an issue from a departmental L10 up to the leadership team without turning the leadership agenda into an operational dumping ground?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Departmental Level 10 Meetings™ must never become a conveyor belt that passes ordinary operational problems up the chain of command. When a frontline team hits a roadblock, their first responsibility is to exhaust their own authority using IDS® at their level.

An issue should only be escalated to the leadership team if it meets one of three strict criteria:
- It crosses departmental boundaries and the two affected department heads cannot reach alignment at their level.
- It requires budget, headcount, or capital allocation that exceeds the departmental manager's defined authority on the Accountability Chart.
- It requires a change to company policy, core processes, or core values documented in the V/TO®.

When an issue meets these criteria, it must not be casually tossed into the leadership meeting. The department manager who sits on the leadership team must take personal ownership of the item. Before adding it to the leadership team Issues List, that manager must clearly state the issue in one concise sentence, identify the root cause, and bring two proposed solutions to the table.

This prevents the leadership team from doing the department's homework. The leadership team then runs IDS® on the escalated issue, makes a definitive decision, assigns a clear 7-day To-Do, and uses the Conclude step to define the cascading message. The department head then carries that exact message back to their departmental Level 10 Meeting the following week. This closed-loop cadence maintains operational discipline while keeping executive meetings focused on high-leverage priorities.