Our Integrator is still carrying the intellectual load during IDS by proposing all the solutions while department heads sit back. How do we apply a leader-to-leader framework to make our department heads own their issues and solutions?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your Integrator is carrying the entire intellectual load during the IDS® portion of your Level 10 Meeting™, you are running a leader-follower organization. This dynamic limits your growth and exhausts your Integrator. To achieve true Owner's Box mastery, you must transition your department heads into proactive problem solvers.

Adopt a leader-to-leader framework by changing how your team presents issues. When a department head adds an item to the Issues List, they must not just drop a problem on the table and wait for the Integrator to solve it. Instead, they must arrive prepared to identify the root cause and present their own proposed solutions.

Before the team begins discussing, the person who owned the issue should state: I have identified this issue, and my proposed solution is to do X, Y, and Z. This shifts the team's role from inventing a solution from scratch to pressure-testing and refining a concrete proposal.

The Integrator's role is to facilitate the discussion and ensure the proposed solution aligns with the company charter, core values, and V/TO®. The Integrator must refrain from speaking first or offering the initial fix.

By requiring team members to own both the problem and the path to resolution, you build their leadership capacity. This practice elevates their performance from positional leaders to true executive partners who drive organizational traction on their own.