Two of my department leaders smile and nod during our Level 10 Meetings, but outside the room, they quietly stall cross-departmental dependencies to make each other's Rocks fail. How do we eliminate this passive-aggressive sabotage?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Artificial harmony is far more damaging to a company than open hostility. When leaders nod in agreement inside your Level 10 Meeting™ and then deliberately drag their feet on deliverables outside of it, they are putting personal ego ahead of company health. Cracks at the leadership level become canyons throughout the rest of your organization.

You must pull this conflict into the daylight immediately. During your next weekly meeting, bring the stalled dependency directly to the Issues List. Frame it without emotion: Rock A is off track because Department B did not deliver the required data or milestone.

Use IDS® to get straight to the root cause. Ask both leaders directly: what is the real friction here? Why did this commitment fail? Do not allow them to hide behind polite generalities or logistical excuses. Force them to state the specific obstacle plainly in front of the entire leadership team.

Remind them that leadership seats exist to serve the greater good of the company, as outlined in your V/TO®. If cross-departmental collaboration continues to stall, invoke the five-minute rule: when two leaders disagree on a shared workflow or priority, they have five minutes to resolve it privately. If they cannot, they must bring it directly to the Integrator, who will make the final, binding operational call.

Make it unequivocally clear that passive-aggressive politicking is a direct violation of your Core Values. If a leader cannot subordinate their personal grievances to hit team Rocks and support their peers, they do not belong on your Accountability Chart.