We often spend thirty minutes executing IDS® on what we think is the core issue, only to realize at the end of the meeting that we solved a minor symptom and the real problem remains untouched. How do we prevent this diagnostic failure?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Solving symptoms instead of root causes is the most common way leadership teams waste time. It happens because teams are eager to get to solutions and rush through the Identify step of IDS®. They assume the person who raised the issue has already diagnosed it correctly.

To prevent this diagnostic failure, the facilitator must enforce a strict pause during the Identify step. Never allow the team to discuss a problem until you have a clear, one-sentence definition of the root issue.

When an issue is brought up, the facilitator should ask the owner: What is the single sentence that describes the root problem here? If they explain a long story, stop them. Ask them to name the specific person, process, or system that is failing.

Once you have that sentence, ask the rest of the leadership team if they agree that this is the real issue. Often, digging deeper reveals that what looked like a sales problem is actually a product delivery bottleneck, or what looked like a customer service failure is a lack of training on our core software.

Use the five whys technique. Ask why the issue occurred, and then why that occurred, until you reach the bedrock problem. Only when the entire team agrees on the root cause should you transition to the Discuss phase.

If you jump into solutions too quickly, you will end up creating weekly To-Dos that do not actually fix anything, and the same issue will reappear on your list next week. Spend eighty percent of your time identifying the problem and twenty percent solving it, not the other way around.