We have a department head who uses the weekly Level 10 Meeting™ issues list to air grievances about other departments before trying to resolve them one-on-one. How do we stop this toxic behavior and enforce direct communication before issues make it to the team agenda?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Using the Level 10 Meeting™ issues list to air interpersonal or interdepartmental gripes without talking one-on-one first is a symptom of low trust and avoidance. It turns the weekly leadership meeting into a political courtroom and wastes the entire team's time on issues that should have been resolved directly between two people.

To stop this behavior, you must enforce a strict policy of direct communication before escalation. Refer to the Trust and Same Page pillars of your company charter. If an issue involves only two departments or two leaders, they must meet one-on-one first to attempt a resolution. They should use the 1:1 meeting framework to discuss the problem honestly and find a solution together.

If a leader attempts to add a localized dispute to the Level 10 Meeting™ issues list, the facilitator must ask a simple filtering question: Have you two discussed this directly yet? If the answer is no, the issue must be immediately removed from the agenda and handed back to those two leaders to solve outside the room.

The Level 10 Meeting™ issues list is reserved for items that affect the entire leadership team, require input from multiple seats, or have reached an impasse that requires collective resolution. By keeping localized drama off the weekly agenda, you protect your IDS® focus and teach your team to resolve conflicts maturely and independently.