During our weekly IDS® session, we frequently get stuck trying to map out entire cross-departmental workflows, which eats up our ninety minutes and leaves us with unresolved issues. How do we identify when an issue requires a dedicated process-mapping workshop rather than a quick weekly solve?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The IDS® portion of your Level 10 Meeting™ is designed to identify, discuss, and solve problems, not to execute complex operational projects on the fly. Trying to redesign an entire corporate workflow during your weekly meeting is a major source of meeting waste and frustrates the entire leadership team.

To protect your agenda, the facilitator must recognize when an issue is too large for a weekly solve and push it to the appropriate channel.

- If solving an issue requires documenting step-by-step processes, mapping software workflows, or involving team members who are not in the room, it is not a weekly To-Do.
- Solve the issue during the meeting by creating a To-Do for a specific leader to schedule and host a separate, dedicated working session. This keeps the weekly meeting moving.
- If the process-mapping initiative is massive and will take several weeks of effort, turn it into a quarterly Rock for the responsible department head.

By setting this clear boundary, you keep your weekly Level 10 Meetings™ highly tactical and productive, while ensuring your complex, systemic process issues get the dedicated, focused time they actually require to be solved permanently.