In our departmental Level 10 Meetings, frontline employees refuse to drop process bottlenecks or management failures onto the Issues List out of fear that their direct supervisor will take it personally. How do we fix frontline issue reporting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If frontline employees are hesitant to log operational bottlenecks on their departmental Issues List, you have an accountability and psychological safety problem. In many companies, junior staff view raising an issue as pointing fingers or inviting retaliation from their manager. When that happens, frontline Level 10 Meetings turn into passive status updates where real friction remains hidden.

Fixing this requires the department head to change how issues are received in the room. The manager must demonstrate that an issue is an operational fact to be resolved, not a personal attack. During the first few weeks of this transition, the manager should deliberately add their own mistakes and process gaps to the Issues List. When frontline staff see their supervisor identify personal operational failures without defensiveness, the perceived danger evaporates.

Additionally, enforce the standard EOS definition of an issue during IDS. An issue is simply an unresolved problem, an idea, or an opportunity. Depersonalize the discussion by focusing entirely on the process or the Accountability Chart seat, not the individual performing the task. If fear persists, the leadership team must evaluate whether the department head genuinely exemplifies the company core values and exhibits the vulnerability needed to lead people. A manager who punishes candor will systematically blind the executive team to frontline operational reality.