Every time we run IDS® on operational bottlenecks, our sales and operations leaders end up in a finger pointing match about who is failing, and we never get to the root cause. How do we use IDS® to identify the true issue behind these functional clashes?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Functional clashes are rarely about the people. They are almost always about misaligned incentives or poorly defined processes. When sales and operations are finger pointing, you are focusing on the symptom, which is the frustration, rather than the root cause. To find the issue behind the issue, the Integrator must enforce the Identify phase. Before anyone suggests a solution, you must state the problem in a single sentence that contains no names and no blame. For example, instead of saying that sales is selling bad deals, the problem statement should be that our onboarding criteria are not clearly defined. Once you have a neutral problem statement, ask why five times. Why are bad deals being onboarded? Because sales does not know the capacity constraints. Why do they not know? Because operations does not publish their capacity scorecard weekly. Now you have found the real issue behind the issue: a lack of internal communication and visibility. Only when both sides agree on this root cause can you move to the Discuss phase. Keep the discussion focused on the Accountability Chart™ and the documented core processes, not on personal work styles. If the clash is driven by a lack of trust, drop that onto the Issues List as a separate item and address the core value alignment of the leaders.