Beyond our standard quarterly Rock completion rates and scorecard numbers, how do we objectively measure whether our leadership team is getting better at the actual IDS process during our sessions with you?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Measuring your team's progress with the Identify, Discuss, and Solve, or IDS®, process requires looking at the speed and permanency of your decision making. During our first few sessions, you will notice your team spends too much time discussing symptoms rather than identifying the real root causes of issues. You will likely walk away from early sessions with unresolved issues that keep reappearing on your Issues List week after week. As we progress through our average twenty-four-month engagement, we track the maturity of your team's conflict. An aligned leadership team is willing to enter danger and have uncomfortable conversations quickly. You will know you are making progress when your team can identify the real issue in a few minutes, debate it without personal animosity, and commit to a permanent solution on the first try. I track how often issues are solved once and for all versus how often they get carried over. Another measure of progress is the shift in who is driving the conversation. In early sessions, the owner or Visionary usually dominates the discussion. As your team matures, the rest of the leadership team takes ownership of the issues, debates them healthily, and solves them without needing the owner to save the day. That is how we measure real leadership health.