Our leadership team is highly polite, so during the Identify phase of IDS, they tend to frame interpersonal or performance issues as process problems. How do we force them to identify the real people conflict?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a leadership team suffers from artificial harmony, they will do anything to avoid pointing fingers. They will spend ninety minutes discussing how a system or process is broken, when the reality is that a specific person is simply not doing their job or does not have the capacity to handle their seat.

Solving a process problem when you actually have a people problem is a complete waste of time. The issue will inevitably return to your list next week.

To break this habit, the facilitator must push hard during the Identify phase of IDS®. Do not let the team jump to a solution until you have truly dug down to the root cause. Ask digging questions. Ask who owns the process, and whether they have the GWC™ (Get It, Want It, Capacity to Do It) for that seat on the Accountability Chart.

If the breakdown is caused by a specific individual's performance or behavior, the facilitator must gently but firmly steer the conversation back to the People Headline or the Accountability Chart.

Frame the discussion around the roles and expectations of the seat, not personal attacks. If a leader is failing, the solution is not a new procedure; it is a direct conversation, a clear performance plan, or a structural change. Forcing your team to name the actual human bottleneck is uncomfortable, but it is the only way to permanently solve the issue.