We are rolling our Level 10 Meetings™ down to our mid-level management teams, but they are treating the meeting as a boring status update rather than a problem-solving session. How do we get them to adopt the real spirit of IDS®?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When rolling the Level 10 Meeting™ down to departmental teams, the most common pitfall is that managers treat the meeting like a traditional staff meeting. They spend the entire time reading updates to each other instead of engaging in raw, honest problem solving.

To break this habit, you must teach them how to build a healthy Issues List. A great Level 10 Meeting™ lives or dies by the quality of its issues. If their Issues List is empty or only contains minor housekeeping items, they are hiding their real problems. Encourage managers to log issues throughout the week as they happen, rather than trying to remember them five minutes before the meeting starts.

The leader of the departmental meeting must set the tone by being vulnerable. They should lead by putting their own frustrations, bottlenecks, and mistakes on the board. This builds the trust necessary for others to do the same. If a manager identifies a problem but does not know how to solve it, that is exactly what the team is there for.

Additionally, actively coach them on how to run IDS®. If a team member starts giving a long, circular update during the reporting phase, the manager must politely interrupt, ask them to drop it to the Issues List, and move forward. Over time, the team will realize that the meeting is their best tool for removing blockers, not a boring administrative chore.