When we identify issues, we struggle to separate structural process failures from individual performance issues. How do we run IDS® to determine if a repeat issue is due to a broken process or the wrong person in the seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When issues repeatedly land on your weekly list, it is a sign that your team is failing to identify the root cause. Often, teams mistake a structural process failure for an individual performance problem, or vice versa. To run IDS® effectively on these issues, you must separate the process from the person.

Start by defining the exact breakdown. If an error occurred, look at your Accountability Chart and your documented core processes. Ask if there is a clear, documented workflow for this specific task, and whether the person doing the job was properly trained on it. If the process is vague or non-existent, the issue is structural. You must solve the process first.

However, if the process is clear, documented, and the person has been trained but still failed to execute, you are dealing with a people issue. In this case, you must evaluate the individual using the GWC™ framework. Ask if they truly get, want, and have the capacity to do the job.

Do not allow the team to spend hours tweaking a process to accommodate someone who simply does not GWC™ the seat. That is a costly mistake that builds unnecessary bureaucracy.

When you run IDS® with this level of clarity, you stop putting band aids on structural issues and stop rewriting processes for underperforming employees. You either fix the system or you address the seat.