Our departmental teams are running their own Level 10 Meetings, but we notice that different departments are wasting time trying to solve the exact same systemic issues in isolation. How do we coordinate our Issues Lists to prevent this double work?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When multiple departments are trying to solve the same systemic issue in parallel, it is a sign that your communication loops are broken and your Accountability Chart boundaries are blurry. This duplication of effort wastes valuable operational energy and often results in conflicting solutions. To resolve this, you must establish a clear protocol for escalating issues. When a department head identifies an issue in their Level 10 Meeting™ that requires input from or affects another department, they should not try to solve it locally. Instead, that issue must be flagged and escalated to the leadership team's Issues List.

The department head, who sits on the leadership team, will introduce the issue at the leadership Level 10 Meeting™. From there, the leadership team will IDS® the issue, determine the root cause, and assign a single owner to solve it globally. Once solved, the decision is cascaded down to all affected departments. Ensure your department heads are actively reviewing the issues on their lists and asking whether the root cause lies within their department's control. If the answer is no, or if it crosses functional lines, it must move up immediately. This keeps departmental meetings highly focused on local execution while protecting systemic issues for the leadership level.