During our Level 10 Meeting™ IDS® session, we often start solving one issue only for the conversation to drift into three other unrelated problems, leaving us with zero completed resolutions. How do we keep our team focused on a single issue without letting agenda drift hijack our ninety minutes?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Agenda drift during IDS® occurs when your leadership team fails to properly identify the root cause of an issue before they begin discussing solutions. In EOS®, the IDS® process stands for Identify, Discuss, and Solve. Teams usually get in trouble because they spend eighty percent of their time discussing a symptom rather than the real problem.

To kill agenda drift, the facilitator must enforce a strict boundary between the Identify phase and the Discuss phase. When an issue is selected, the person who raised it must state the problem in one clear sentence. The facilitator must then ask the team if they agree that this is the real root issue.

Do not allow anyone to propose a solution or share an anecdote during this identification step. If a team member begins to pivot to another topic or bring up a separate problem, the facilitator must step in immediately.

Use the following phrase to stop the drift:

- That sounds like a separate issue. Let us park that on our short-term issues list and focus exclusively on resolving the current problem.

Once the root issue is agreed upon, move to discussion. Keep the discussion focused solely on that specific problem. When a solution is reached, capture the action item on your Weekly To-Do List and move to the next prioritized issue.