Our leadership team is highly analytical, and before our weekly Level 10 Meeting™, they spend hours writing out long paragraphs and pre-designed solutions inside our software on our weekly Issues List, which completely kills the live, organic debate during our actual IDS® session. How do we stop this over-processing?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When analytical leaders pre-process and write out extensive solutions before the meeting starts, they are attempting to control the outcome and avoid the discomfort of raw, spontaneous debate. This behavior kills the organic dynamic of IDS® and turns your Level 10 Meeting™ into a series of pre-recorded presentations rather than a live problem-solving session.

The Issues List is a holding dock, not a dissertation platform. The description of an issue on your list should be no longer than a single sentence. For example, 'client onboarding delay' or 'marketing lead drop.' That is it.

To break this habit, the Integrator must enforce a strict policy on the prep work allowed in your meeting software. Leaders may add issues to the list throughout the week, but they must not write out paragraphs of context, data, or proposed solutions. If a leader adds an issue with a wall of text, the Integrator must delete the text before the meeting begins.

During the meeting, the owner of the issue has precisely thirty seconds to identify the core problem. The discussion and solution must happen live, with the entire leadership team contributing. This ensures that you leverage the collective intelligence of the room and build real alignment, rather than forcing the team to sign off on a pre-packaged decision.