Even when we successfully prioritize our top three issues, our team drifts into unrelated side-discussions during the IDS process, leaving us with multiple half-solved problems at the end of the meeting. How do we lock down agenda drift during the solve phase?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Agenda drift during the IDS process is a major source of meeting waste. It happens when your team lacks the discipline to stay focused on the specific root cause they agreed to solve. They get distracted by symptoms or tangential problems, and before you know it, you are trying to solve three different issues at once.

To cure this, the meeting facilitator must actively police the conversation. When someone starts sharing an anecdote that is not directly related to the issue at hand, the facilitator must immediately stop them. They should say that the point is interesting but ask if it is part of the current issue. If it is not, they must park it on the short-term Issues List to be addressed later.

Another practical tool is to clearly state the target issue before starting the discussion. Write the specific problem statement where everyone can see it. During the discussion, constantly refer back to that statement.

Finally, remember that you cannot move to the Solve phase until the group is in full agreement on the Identify phase. If the team is drifting, it often means you did not actually find the root cause, and people are arguing about different symptoms. Go back to the root cause, define it clearly, and keep the team focused on a single bite-sized solution.