How do we run IDS® effectively when the issue involves a structural flaw in our own business model that the leadership team is financially or emotionally resistant to admitting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a business model flaw is the real problem, your team will subconsciously redirect the conversation to surface issues like process breakdowns or marketing execution. To break through this emotional resistance, you must use the objective tools of EOS® to strip away the sentimentality. Start by framing the issue around your V/TO® and your long-term viability. If your margins are shrinking because your core offering is becoming commoditized, stop discussing how to make the sales team work harder. Bring the hard data to the table. Use your weekly Scorecard trends and financial reports to show that the current path is unsustainable. During the Identify phase of IDS®, ask the team to state the problem in one sentence without using names, emotional adjectives, or defensive history. If the team resists, the Integrator must step in and call out the elephant in the room. State clearly that the current structure or product line is no longer aligned with your Core Focus or your Target. Force the team to discuss the existential reality of the market, not their comfort zone. By grounding the discussion in objective numbers and your long-term vision, you remove the personal stakes. Solve the problem by deciding whether to pivot, kill the offering, or restructure the Accountability Chart to support a new direction.