We have successfully cut our Level 10 Meeting reporting down to twenty-five minutes, but we still cannot stay under the ninety-minute limit because our IDS session devolves into endless storytelling and circular debates. How do we build the discipline to run a tight, high-impact problem-solving session that actually clears the issues list?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Keeping your weekly Level 10 Meeting under ninety minutes requires a relentless focus on the mechanical structure of IDS. When teams blow through their meeting time during problem-solving, it is usually because they are breaking the rules of the Identify step. Instead of clearly defining the issue in a single sentence, leaders immediately begin telling stories, sharing historical context, or defending their departments.

To fix this, the meeting leader must enforce a strict separation between identifying the problem and discussing it. Do not let anyone start proposing solutions or debating the merits of a point until the actual root issue is agreed upon and written down. If a leader begins to ramble, the facilitator must politely interrupt and ask them to state the core problem in ten words or less.

Additionally, limit the discussion phase. Once the issue is identified, the team only needs enough discussion to move to the solve step. Most teams talk an issue to death because they want consensus, but agreement is not the goal. The goal is a clear, actionable to-do that solves the problem permanently. If the discussion starts repeating itself, the facilitator must call for a vote or make an executive decision, assign a to-do, and move directly to the next issue on the list.