We have leaders who remain silent during our Level 10 Meeting™ but then lobby other team members in private, offline conversations right after the meeting is over. This meeting-after-the-meeting behavior is creating political silos and undermining our decisions. How do we force these silent leaders to speak up during IDS® instead of lobbying offline?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This behavior is a clear sign of artificial harmony and a lack of trust on your leadership team. When leaders stay silent during IDS® but lobby offline, they are actively sabotaging the team's commitment to decisions.

To kill this toxic habit, you must address it directly during the rating portion of your Level 10 Meeting™. If a decision is made during IDS® and a leader later tries to lobby you or another team member offline, you must stop them immediately. Tell them that because they did not voice their objection during the meeting, the decision is final, or tell them they must put it on the Issues List for next week.

You must also bring this behavior to the next Level 10 Meeting™ as an issue. Frame it around your team's healthy conflict standards. Let the silent leader know that they are expected to enter the danger during IDS®. In the EOS® model, we require intellectual friction. If they do not speak up, they are failing to GWC™ their seat on the Accountability Chart. Let them know that withholding their perspective during the weekly pulse and then lobbying offline is unacceptable. Real alignment requires everyone to put their cards on the table during the meeting so the team can debate, decide, and support the outcome as one.