During our weekly customer and employee headlines section, our team members share updates that are actually disguised complaints or massive operational problems, but they do not want to put them on the Issues List. How do we cleanly separate a true headline from an issue?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A headline is a simple, one-sentence statement of fact. It requires zero discussion, zero debate, and zero action. It is either good news or bad news about a customer or an employee, period. For example: John Doe was promoted to manager, or Client X signed their contract renewal. When a leader shares a headline that sounds like: Client Y is complaining about our delivery times and they might leave us, that is not a headline. That is a major operational issue disguised as a headline. The facilitator must be ruthless here. The moment a headline contains any complexity or hints at a needed solution, stop the speaker immediately. Do not let them explain or elaborate. Simply say: That is an issue. Drop it to the list. Then, physically write that headline on the bottom of the Issues List so it can be prioritized and solved during the IDS® portion of the meeting. This keeps your five-minute headline section moving at lightning speed and ensures you do not waste time discussing problems out of order. Teach your team that dropping a problem to the Issues List is not a failure or a disciplinary action. It is the only way to get the collective brainpower of the leadership team focused on solving it. Keep headlines to facts, and push everything else to IDS®.