Our department managers are running their local Level 10 Meetings™, but they are skipping the IDS® portion entirely, claiming they have no issues to discuss, which turns their meetings into boring status updates. How do we force them to find and solve problems?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a departmental team claims they have "no issues," they are either hiding problems out of fear or they do not understand what an issue is. A business with no issues is a business that is not growing. This is a common failure point when cascading Level 10 Meetings™.

To break this habit, the leadership team must train department heads on how to identify issues. An issue is not just a problem; it can be an opportunity, an idea for improvement, a process bottleneck, or a customer feedback trend.

The department manager must lead by example. They should seed the Issues List with two or three of their own challenges before the meeting starts. If the list is empty when the meeting begins, the manager must look at their departmental Scorecard and Rocks. Any metric that is off-track or any Rock that is falling behind must be dropped to the Issues List.

Additionally, the manager can go around the room and ask each team member directly, "What is one thing that made your job harder this week?" This forces the team to voice frustrations.

If a department continues to run meetings with empty Issues Lists, the Integrator should audit their meetings. Teach them that identifying issues is a sign of strength and a commitment to continuous improvement, not a sign of failure.