During the IDS portion of our Level 10 Meeting, we spend almost all of our time on the Discuss step and very little on Identify or Solve. How do we force our leadership team to spend more time diagnosing the root cause before opening the floor to debate?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Most leadership teams fail at IDS because they jump straight from a quick description of the problem into a long, circular debate. They spend eighty percent of their time on the Discuss step and never actually solve the root cause. This is a massive waste of energy.

To run a highly effective IDS session, the facilitator must force the team to spend the majority of their time on the Identify step. When an issue is raised, do not let anyone suggest a solution or start debating immediately.

First, ask the owner of the issue to state the problem in one clear sentence. Then, ask the team if they agree that this is the real problem. Often, the stated issue is just a symptom of a deeper, systemic failure. For example, a sales drop might actually be a product delivery issue.

Do not move to the Discuss step until the root cause is clearly identified and agreed upon by everyone. Once you have the real issue, the Discuss step should be short and focused.

Everyone gets to say their piece once, and then you move immediately to Solve. The solution must result in a concrete To-Do that is assigned to a single person. If you find your team looping back to old arguments, stop the meeting and ask, "Are we still identifying, or are we just repeating ourselves?"