We are spending our entire IDS time talking about surface level complaints and symptoms, and the same problems keep coming back week after week. How do we force our team to dig down to the issue behind the issue?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When the same issues reappear on your weekly agenda, it means you solved a symptom rather than the root cause. This happens because teams rush to solve a problem before they actually understand what is broken. To fix this, you must master the Identify step of IDS®.

Spend at least eighty percent of your time on the Identify phase before you even think about discussing a solution. When an issue is raised, ask the owner of the issue to state the problem in one clear sentence. Once they state it, ask the rest of the team if they agree that is the real issue. Frequently, you will find that a perceived issue like sales are down is actually a symptom of our onboarding process is broken or our price sheets are outdated.

Keep asking why and what is the root cause of that until you reach a point where further questions only point to a specific person, process, or tool. Only when everyone agrees on the root cause should you move to Discuss and Solve. If you solve the real root issue, it goes away forever. If you rush, you will find yourself talking about the exact same problem next quarter.