We have successfully cascaded Level 10 Meetings™ to our middle management teams, but their meetings have devolved into dry status updates with zero meaningful IDS® occurring. How do we correct this rollout behavior?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When cascading EOS® to middle management, it is common for their Level 10 Meetings™ to lose their edge and turn into boring project updates. This happens because managers often lack the confidence or training to engage in healthy conflict during the IDS® portion of the meeting.

To correct this, you must reinforce that the primary purpose of the meeting is solving problems, not giving status reports. Your Integrator or a senior leader should attend a few of these departmental meetings as an observer to coach the team on their meeting discipline. They must show the middle managers how to actively push issues onto the list and run a tight, seventy-percent-solving process.

If the managers are not identifying real issues, it is usually because they are afraid of looking incompetent or causing conflict. You must build a culture where bringing up problems is celebrated, not punished. Working with a Professional EOS Implementer® ensures that your leadership team masters these coaching techniques before trying to cascade the tools down. When middle managers learn how to run a true Level 10 Meeting™, they take ownership of their departments, freeing up your time to focus on scaling operations and planning your exit.