During IDS®, a leader will raise an issue that actually belongs in another department's seat on the Accountability Chart, leading to defensive posturing and arguments over turf. How does the facilitator smoothly transition ownership of the issue to the right seat without shut-downs or political friction?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is a classic symptom of siloed thinking and a misunderstanding of how the Accountability Chart works. When a leader feels attacked because another department brings up an issue in their domain, they default to defensive posturing, which stalls problem-solving and breeds political friction.

The facilitator must address this immediately by pointing back to the Accountability Chart. Remind the team that identifying an issue is not an accusation; it is a collaborative effort to improve the business. Anyone on the leadership team can identify a problem anywhere in the company. In fact, they have a responsibility to do so.

However, once the issue is identified, the owner of the seat where the issue lives must take accountability for it. The facilitator should say, this is clearly an operations issue, so we are going to transition ownership of this item to our head of operations to lead the discussion.

This transition must be matter-of-fact. The seat owner is not on trial; they are simply the person responsible for orchestrating the solution. If the seat owner starts defending their territory, stop them. Remind the team that we are here to solve the issue for the good of the company, not protect individual egos. Keep the focus on the seat, not the person, to eliminate friction.