Our middle managers are resisting the rollout of departmental Level 10 Meetings because they feel their direct reports are already overwhelmed with client-facing work and do not need another ninety-minute meeting. How do we launch these without causing a revolt?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Resistance to departmental meetings is always rooted in a fear of wasted time. If your managers and frontline staff think they are too busy for a ninety-minute meeting, it is because their current meetings are unstructured, painful, and unproductive. You must flip the narrative.

Explain to your middle managers that a highly disciplined Level 10 Meeting™ is designed to give them time back, not take it away. A single, structured weekly pulse eliminates the constant stream of unscheduled phone calls, text messages, and internal emails that interrupt their client-facing work every day. It consolidates operations.

To make the transition easier, start by running a pilot with one department. Choose a team with an open-minded leader, and run their Level 10 Meeting™ with absolute agenda discipline for four weeks. Let them experience how IDS® actually resolves their daily frustrations once and for all.

Once that department sees their communication clear up and their daily interruptions drop, use their success to sell the rest of the company. If necessary, you can shorten frontline meetings to sixty minutes as a starting point, but do not compromise on the structure. Once they experience a well-run meeting, the resistance will evaporate.