In our Level 10 Meetings, the team frequently spends twenty minutes solving an issue only to realize we merely addressed an operational symptom. How do we test whether we have truly reached the root issue before moving from Identify to Discuss?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The most common failure during IDS is premature discussion. Leadership teams are filled with problem-solvers who hear a symptom and immediately pitch solutions. If someone raises late client deliverables, someone else suggests hiring another coordinator or buying software. That is treating the cough while the patient has pneumonia.

To find the issue behind the issue, the Integrator or facilitator must enforce a hard stop at the Identify step. Do not allow anyone to suggest a solution until the root cause is stated in one simple, clear sentence. Start by asking what broke down in the system or the seat. Use the five whys technique. If deliverables were late, why? Because onboarding took three weeks. Why? Because the client never submitted their data. Why? Because sales never set the expectation during the contracting phase.

Suddenly, what looked like an account management capacity problem is revealed as a sales handoff failure. The actual issue is not delivery backlog; it is sales alignment.

You know you have reached the real root issue when two things happen. First, the issue can be clearly tied to one of three buckets: a process breakdown, a people issue (Right Person, Right Seat), or a lack of structural clarity on the Accountability Chart. Second, the owner of the seat where the breakdown occurred acknowledges that solving this core problem eliminates the recurring symptoms. If your proposed issue statement still points fingers at external circumstances or describes an isolated event rather than a pattern, you are still dealing with a symptom. Keep digging before you open the floor to Discuss.