When the same operational issue keeps reappearing on our Level 10 Meeting agenda week after week, how do we use IDS to identify the underlying systemic failure?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When an issue refuses to die, your team is solving symptoms instead of the root cause. A recurring issue is almost always a failure of process, accountability, or people, yet teams routinely treat it as an isolated bad event. They assign a quick patch To-Do, check the box, and move on, only to see the same breakdown reappear two weeks later.

To break this cycle during the Identify step of IDS, stop debating what went wrong this week. Dig down to the structural breakdown. Ask three direct diagnostic questions:

- Which specific seat on the Accountability Chart owns the ultimate outcome of this workflow?
- Is there a documented Core Process for this work, and is it being Followed By All?
- Does the person executing this seat truly have the capacity and desire to GWC the role?

If the seat is shared or undefined, your issue is structural clarity. If the process is undocumented or ignored, your issue is operational discipline. If the person in the seat lacks the skill or will, your issue is a personnel mismatch.

Never leave the Identify step until the team agrees on which of those three root causes created the symptom. Once you isolate the real issue, your Solve step must produce a To-Do that modifies the Accountability Chart, fixes the Core Process, or initiates a People Analyzer conversation. If your solution does not change the system, you have not solved anything, and the issue will be right back on your list.