During full-day sessions, we often experience what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance, where the team tries to dodge hard organizational truths by introducing endless operational side-tracks. How do you keep us focused when the team starts deflecting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Resistance is a natural psychological defense mechanism. When a leadership team is faced with painful organizational truths, such as a toxic culture fit or a failing product line, they will instinctively try to escape into minor operational details or comfortable side-tracks.

Maintaining Focus

I maintain a highly disciplined facilitation style to combat this. The moment a team member starts dragging the conversation into granular operations, I call a timeout and place the topic in the Issues List or on the parking lot board. We do not allow distractions to hijack our strategic focus, similar to how we manage tangents in a [Level 10 Meeting](/qa/rein-in-level-10-meeting-segue).

Leveraging the IDS® Tool

We also use the IDS® (Identify, Discuss, Solve) tool to force absolute clarity. This requires us to spend the majority of our time identifying the root cause of an issue before we discuss solutions.

If a team member tries to deflect by blaming external factors, I will challenge them to look inward and focus on what we can control. This approach helps ensure we are not just addressing symptoms but truly solving core problems, much like ensuring our [quarterly planning sessions](/qa/fixing-boring-eos-quarterly-sessions) are productive.

Isolated Environment

We treat these sessions as an isolated environment, much like a mental quarantine, where the noise of daily operations is completely shut out. By keeping the team focused on the real, underlying issues, we push through the discomfort and reach the breakthroughs necessary to scale. This dedicated focus is crucial for avoiding issues like [leadership teams forming cliques](/qa/breaking-up-executive-factions-cliques) or getting bogged down in departmental silos.

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