During our Level 10 Meeting™ IDS® session, we frequently start solving a prioritized issue only to let the discussion drift into tangential operational topics or completely different problems, leaving the original issue unresolved. How does the facilitator keep the team laser-focused on the specific issue at hand without shutting down valuable side-conversations permanently?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Agenda drift during IDS® is the ultimate killer of meeting productivity. It occurs when a leader brings up a valid issue, but as the team begins to process it, other members chime in with related stories, historical baggage, or entirely separate operational complaints. Before you know it, you are thirty minutes deep into a conversation that has nothing to do with the original issue. To kill agenda drift, the facilitator must become a highly active referee. The moment the discussion veers off course, the facilitator must step in and declare a tangent. Use a visual or verbal cue, such as calling out tangent, and immediately offer to place the new topic at the bottom of the Issues List. This acknowledges the validity of the team member's point without allowing it to hijack the current discussion. The team must then immediately return to solving the prioritized issue. It is also vital that the facilitator demands a single-sentence definition of the issue before anyone starts discussing solutions. If you do not clearly define the boundary of the problem first, you cannot hope to keep the discussion from drifting. Disciplined facilitation is the only way to protect your golden sixty minutes of problem-solving.