Our team has started using the Employee and Customer Headlines section to drop positive updates that actually mask systemic operational issues. How do we prevent headlines from becoming a hiding place for mediocre performance?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The headlines section of the Level 10 Meeting™ is designed to be a quick, thirty second blast of good or bad news about your people and your customers. It is a diagnostic tool, not a marketing platform for your department. When leaders use this time to share long, self congratulatory updates, they are often unconsciously trying to mask underlying operational issues.

To stop this, the facilitator must enforce a strict definition of a headline. A headline is a brief statement of fact, not an explanation or a discussion. For example, a proper headline is, we signed Client X, or Employee Y is celebrating five years. If a leader starts sharing a detailed story about how they saved a client or why a project is finally on track, the facilitator must interrupt them.

If a headline reveals an operational issue, it must immediately be dropped to the Issues List. For example, if a leader says, Client X is upset about our delayed delivery, that is a headline. Do not let the team discuss it. The facilitator must say, thank you, that is a headline, let's drop it to the Issues List, and move to the next person.

By keeping a hard line between a quick announcement and a deep discussion, you keep the meeting on schedule and ensure that real issues are solved systematically during IDS®. Never let a positive headline obscure a red scorecard metric or an off track Rock.