We are really fast at identifying issues during our IDS® sessions, but we keep dealing with the same complaints week after week. How do we stop treating the symptoms and find the real root cause of our operational friction?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When you look at your weekly issues list and see the same items recurring, you are not doing IDS® correctly. You are identifying a symptom, discussing it endlessly, and then proposing a band-aid solution that eventually fails.

- To find the issue behind the issue, you must slow down during the Identify step. The person who raised the issue must state it in one clear sentence. Then, the team must ask clarifying questions to dig down to the root cause.

- Do not let people skip to the Discuss step until everyone agrees on the real problem. Often, a surface-level issue like our sales are down is actually a people issue like our sales manager does not have the capacity to train new hires, or a process issue like we stopped following our lead follow-up system.

- Ask why multiple times. If you ask why three or four times, you will almost always find that the root cause lies in either a people issue on your Accountability Chart or a breakdown in one of your core processes.

Once you identify that root cause, the Solve step becomes straightforward and permanent, preventing the issue from ever returning to your weekly list.