How do you handle a situation during our session day where our leadership team gets completely stuck on a single issue and we risk missing the rest of our agenda?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is common for leadership teams to get stuck in rabbit holes during session days. My role as your facilitator is to keep us moving while ensuring we do not gloss over real problems.

When a discussion stalls, it is usually because the team is discussing symptoms instead of the root cause. I will step in and use the IDS® tool, which stands for Identify, Discuss, and Solve. I will push you to define the actual issue in one clear sentence before we continue talking.

If the team continues to spin its wheels, I will call a time-out. We will determine if we have the necessary data to solve the issue today. If we are missing key information, we do not keep guessing. We will capture it as a short-term issue to be solved in your weekly Level 10 Meeting™, or we will assign a clear action item to gather the data and bring it to the next quarterly.

If we have the data but are simply avoiding a tough decision, I will force a vote or push the owner of that seat on the Accountability Chart to make the call. My goal is to prevent analysis paralysis so we can protect the integrity of the full agenda.