By the time we get to the IDS portion of our Level 10 Meeting, our team seems exhausted and we end up making rushed, sloppy decisions just to get through the list. How do we maintain our problem-solving energy at the end of the meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Problem-solving is intellectually demanding, and it is natural for a leadership team to experience fatigue during the final portion of the Level 10 Meeting™. This fatigue leads to bad decisions, unresolved issues, and a general decline in operational discipline.

To combat this, you must change your expectation of what a successful IDS® session looks like. The goal is not to clear the entire Issues List every week. A long issues list is healthy; it means your team is bringing problems to the surface.

Instead, your goal is to identify and fully solve the top three most critical issues facing the business today. Before you begin IDS®, the team must collectively agree on the top three priorities. Ignore the rest of the list for now.

Focus all of your remaining energy on solving number one. Once number one is solved, move to number two. If you only resolve those top two issues by the ninety-minute mark, your meeting was a massive success.

Rushing through ten minor issues while leaving your biggest bottlenecks unresolved is a waste of time. By focusing your team's limited energy on the most impactful priorities, you prevent fatigue and ensure that the decisions you make are high-quality and sustainable.