During our Level 10 Meeting™, team members politely talk around personal friction and systemic operational failures during IDS®. How do we break through this culture of artificial harmony to get to the real issue behind the issue?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Politeness is the enemy of progress. When teams practice artificial harmony, they bring symptoms to the Level 10 Meeting™ instead of the root causes, and they dance around the real friction. To break through this deadlock and execute IDS® properly, you must embrace healthy conflict. When an issue is raised, the person presenting it must clearly state what the problem is in a single sentence. Once identified, do not let the team jump straight into solving. You must spend the majority of your time in the Discuss phase. This is where you dig deep. Ask open, probing questions to uncover the personal friction or systemic process failures behind the symptom. Often, the real issue is that someone is in the wrong seat on the Accountability Chart, or a core process is not being followed. As the leader, you must model vulnerability by admitting mistakes and calling out the unspoken tension in the room. If a discussion starts to feel uncomfortable, lean into that discomfort. That is where the truth lies. Once the actual root cause is exposed, solving it is usually simple and permanent. Solving a symptom only guarantees the problem will return next week. Real IDS® requires the courage to name the real issue.