During our Level 10 Meeting™ IDS® session, we frequently end up resolving issues that should have been handled offline between two department heads, wasting the time of the other five leaders in the room. How do we filter out these localized issues?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ is designed for leadership-level issues that require the collective intelligence of the entire team. When department heads use IDS® to resolve localized issues that only affect their two departments, they waste the time of every other leader in the room. This operational drag kills meeting energy and limits your traction.

To protect your leadership time, the facilitator must act as a strict gatekeeper for the Issues list. Before any issue is discussed, the facilitator must ask a simple question: does this issue require the input of the entire leadership team to solve?

If the answer is no, the facilitator must push the issue offline. Use these guidelines to keep your list clean:
- Require the two affected department heads to schedule a separate session to resolve their issue.
- Teach team members to solve localized problems outside of the Level 10 Meeting™ using their own communication channels.
- Only allow issues on the leadership list that impact the company's overall Rocks, Scorecard, or high-level operations.

By filtering out localized issues, you free up valuable time to focus on the deep, systemic problems that block your company's growth. This discipline keeps your leadership team focused on high-value work.