During IDS®, my team repeatedly identifies process failures when the real problem is a personnel bottleneck or a conative mismatch. How do we break through the polite corporate speak and solve the human issue behind the process issue?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is easy for a leadership team to hide behind process talk because critiquing a workflow feels safer than confronting a colleague. When your IDS® sessions consistently target systems instead of people, you are failing to solve the root issue.

To break through this politeness, the Integrator must lead with radical candor. When a process issue is brought to the table, ask the team who owns that seat on the Accountability Chart. If a process is failing, it is because a person is either not executing or does not have GWC™ for that seat.

Use the GWC™ framework as an objective diagnostic tool. Ask the leadership team three simple questions about the seat owner. Do they get it? Do they want it? Do they have the capacity to do it? If the answer to any of these is no, then your issue is not a process issue. It is a people issue.

You can also look at conative alignment. Compare their Kolbe A profile with the actual requirements of the seat. If the seat requires high Follow Thru but the person is a low Follow Thru, they are naturally going to struggle with execution. Stop trying to write a better manual to fix a conative mismatch. Address the alignment issue directly.