We rolled out Level 10 Meetings™ to our department teams, but the department heads are dominating the meetings and treating them as a platform to give top-down directives instead of letting the team IDS® their own issues. How do we fix this dynamic?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a department head dominates a Level 10 Meeting™, they defeat the entire purpose of the weekly pulse. This behavior prevents the team from building their own problem-solving muscles and reinforces a culture of dependency. If you want a self-sustaining business that is ready for a clean exit, department teams must learn to solve their own operational issues.

To fix this dynamic, you must change who runs the meeting. The department head should not be the facilitator of their department's weekly pulse.

Instead, assign the facilitator role to a capable team member within that department. This immediately shifts the power dynamic. It forces the department head to sit in their designated seat as a regular participant, allowing other team members to step up.

Additionally, the facilitator must enforce the rules of IDS®. During the problem-solving block, the department head must not dictate the solution immediately. They should ask questions and let the team propose solutions first.

Use these steps to transition the meeting dynamic:

- Rotate the facilitator and scribe roles among different team members to build shared ownership.
- Ensure the department head only speaks after other team members have shared their input on an issue.
- Focus the Issues List on departmental bottlenecks that the team has the authority to solve themselves.

By separating facilitation from authority, you will build a stronger, more capable team. This allows your department heads to focus on leading and managing, rather than micromanaging every weekly task.