Since rolling out departmental Level 10 Meetings™, our middle managers are solving issues within their own weekly pulses that end up creating operational headaches and broken processes for other departments. How do we prevent these siloed solutions?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Departmental Level 10 Meetings™ are highly effective for driving local accountability, but without proper cross-functional guardrails, they can quickly breed operational silos. When a department solves a problem in isolation, they often shift the burden of the issue onto another team.

To prevent these siloed solutions, you must establish a clear boundary for what constitutes a departmental issue versus a cross-departmental issue. Introduce a rule: if a solution developed during IDS® changes a process, impacts another team's scorecard metrics, or requires resources from another department, it cannot be finalized in the departmental meeting.

Instead, the department head must elevate the issue to the leadership team Level 10 Meeting™ Issues List. The leadership team then reviews the proposed solution to ensure it aligns with the overall V/TO® and does not create friction elsewhere in the organization.

Additionally, encourage inter-departmental communication by sharing meeting notes or scorecard dashboards digitally. Using a unified platform ensures that what is happening in sales is visible to operations. This cross-functional visibility keeps your operations unified, prevents costly process rework, and ensures you are building a highly integrated, valuable business ready for a clean exit.