As we roll out Level 10 Meetings to our departmental teams, our leadership team's Issues List is getting flooded with minor tactical problems escalated from below. How do we establish a filter to keep our leadership meeting focused on high-level strategy?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A healthy organization must have a clean flow of information, but a flooded leadership Issues List means your departmental teams are failing to solve problems at their own level. When middle managers immediately push every obstacle up the chain, they are practicing upward delegation, which destroys leadership efficiency. You must establish a strict filter for what gets escalated.

The rule is simple: a departmental team must exhaust all possibilities of IDS® at their own level before an issue can be escalated to the leadership team. To enforce this, require any department head who wants to bring an issue to the leadership Level 10 Meeting™ to first answer three questions. First, did your departmental team spend at least one full session trying to solve this? Second, does solving this issue require resources or budget beyond your department's authority? Third, does this issue directly impact other departments or the company's long-term Rocks?

If the answer to these questions is no, the issue must stay at the departmental level. Additionally, ensure your Accountability Chart clearly defines the decision-making boundaries for each seat. When department heads understand their exact scope of authority, they will feel empowered to resolve issues locally. This keeps your leadership weekly pulse clean, focused, and dedicated to driving the strategic vision and high-leverage execution.