When we run IDS during our weekly meetings, we solve the immediate tactical problem, but the exact same operational headache pops up under a different name a few weeks later. How do we master the Identify phase of IDS to get to the structural issue behind the issue every single time?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The mistake is moving from Identify to Discuss too quickly. Most leadership teams spend thirty seconds identifying and fifty minutes discussing. You must spend the majority of your time in the Identify phase. When an issue is put on the board, do not accept the first description at face value. Ask the owner of the issue to state it in one clear sentence. Then, ask the team to ask clarifying questions, not to offer solutions. You must ask why multiple times to dig past the surface level. For example, if the issue is a missed sales target, the immediate response might be to blame marketing. By digging deeper, you might find the real issue is that the onboarding process is so broken that account managers are spending all their time fixing old accounts instead of selling. The structural breakdown is the issue, not the sales activity. Never move to the Discuss phase until the entire leadership team agrees on the single, underlying root cause. Write that root cause on the board so everyone is looking at the same target before you begin solving. This discipline ensures you run IDS on the issue behind the issue.