We struggle to keep our Level 10 Meeting moving when a key leadership team member is absent, as we tend to put all issues related to their department on hold. How do we handle important issues when the responsible department head is not in the room?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Putting key issues on hold because a department head is absent is a major bottleneck that stalls your operational momentum. While you want to respect boundaries and avoid making blind decisions, your business cannot afford to pause execution for a week. To solve this, you must establish clear rules for how to handle issues in an absent leader's domain.

First, distinguish between issues that require immediate action and those that can wait. If an issue is an emergency or directly blocks another department's weekly progress, you must address it. Use your Accountability Chart to identify who can step in. Often, the Integrator or a peer can make a temporary decision or assign a to-do to keep things moving.

Second, if the issue is complex but not urgent, you can still begin the Identify portion of IDS®. Discuss the problem, gather the known facts, and write down the questions you need the absent leader to answer. Then, assign a weekly to-do to one team member to meet with the absent leader as soon as they return to finalize the solution.

Never use a team member's absence as an excuse to avoid problem-solving. By keeping the discipline of the weekly meeting pulse alive even when the room is not full, you maintain a high level of execution and teach your organization that the system is stronger than any single individual.