During the IDS® portion of our Level 10 Meeting™, we constantly suffer from issue drift, where we start discussing one priority issue but get easily distracted by side conversations, ending up trying to solve three different problems at once without resolving any of them. How do we maintain strict focus on a single issue until it is fully solved?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Issue drift is the fastest way to kill the productivity of your weekly Level 10 Meeting™. It happens when a team starts discussing one issue, and someone says, that reminds me of another problem, which drags the entire room down a rabbit hole. Within ten minutes, you are debating three different topics, and you solve none of them. This is meeting waste at its worst.

To solve this, your facilitator must enforce the rules of IDS® with absolute discipline. When the team is identifying the issue, you must agree on a single, clear problem statement before any discussion begins. Write it down. If someone starts drifting into a separate topic during the discussion phase, the facilitator must immediately intervene.

Use this exact language: That is a separate issue. Let's park it on the list and get back to the current problem. Do not let the team overcomplicate things. You must solve one issue completely, agree on a clear To-Do, and only then move to the next item on the list.

If a side topic is indeed critical, simply add it to the bottom of the short-term issues list. This keeps the team focused and ensures that you are actually solving problems rather than just talking about them. Remember that a solved issue creates momentum, while three half-discussed issues create frustration and drag down your team's energy.