When our leadership team sits down to IDS, we consistently spend forty-five minutes debating symptoms like a missed sales target instead of identifying the underlying structural or people issues. How do we force our team to dig deeper and find the real issue behind the issue?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To solve the issue behind the issue, you must break the habit of talking about symptoms. During your Level 10 Meeting™, the leadership team will naturally present surface-level complaints. They will tell you that sales are down or that a customer is angry. If you start solving there, you are just putting a band-aid on a broken bone. You must enforce the discipline of the IDS® process. The first step, Identify, is where ninety percent of teams fail. When an issue is raised, do not let anyone discuss it yet. Instead, ask the owner of the issue to define the problem in one single, clear sentence. If they cannot do that, they do not yet know what the real issue is. Ask probing questions that dig into the structural root. Is this a people issue, a process issue, or a structural issue? Often, a surface-level operational mistake is actually a people problem where someone does not GWC™ their seat, or a process problem where the standard operating procedure is missing. Force the team to stay in the Identify phase until everyone agrees on the root cause. Only when you have identified the real obstacle should you move to Discuss and Solve. By staying disciplined and refusing to discuss symptoms, you will permanently resolve the core problems that hold your business back.