When we run the IDS process on recurring operational issues, we keep blaming them on personality conflicts or communication breakdowns between department heads. How do we look past these interpersonal symptoms to identify the actual structural or process issues?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Personality clashes are almost always a symptom of structural friction, not the root cause. When two department heads are constantly arguing, it is usually because their seats on the Accountability Chart™ have overlapping responsibilities or conflicting measurables. To run the IDS process effectively on these issues, you must strip the people out of the equation first. Start by looking at your Accountability Chart™. Are the roles, responsibilities, and outcomes for each seat clearly defined and mutually exclusive? If two people are fighting over who owns a specific decision, your chart is broken. Next, look at your processes. Have you documented your core processes using the EOS three-step process tool, and is everyone actually following them? If the process is not documented and followed by all, people will invent their own ways of working, leading to inevitable friction. During the Identify step, ask your team: if we had different people in these seats, would this problem still exist? If the answer is yes, you have a process or structural issue, not a personality conflict. Do not let your team hide behind communication issues. Dig deeper until you find the exact metric, process step, or accountability boundary that is failing. Only then can you move to Discuss and Solve to fix it permanently.