During the IDS portion of our Level 10 Meeting, our leadership team spends too much time debating whose department is actually responsible for a specific issue instead of actually solving the problem. How do we stop these structural arguments from derailing our meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Structural arguments during IDS® are a clear symptom of an unclear Accountability Chart. When your team spends fifteen minutes debating who owns an issue, it is because you have overlapping roles or undefined accountabilities. You cannot solve a problem if you do not know who is driving the solution.

To stop this derailment, the facilitator must immediately pause the discussion and point to your Accountability Chart. Every seat must have five clear, distinct roles. If the issue falls clearly within the roles of a specific seat, that leader is the owner. They are accountable for the solution, even if they need help from other departments to execute it.

If the ownership is genuinely ambiguous, do not waste the entire Level 10 Meeting™ trying to rewrite your organizational structure. Assign a weekly to-do to the Integrator to meet with the affected parties outside of the meeting, clarify the roles, and update the Accountability Chart. For the duration of the current meeting, the Integrator must make an executive decision and assign a temporary owner so you can proceed with IDS®.

Remember, the goal of IDS® is to solve problems permanently. If you find yourself having the same ownership debate week after week, your structure is the real issue. Solve the structure first, and the weekly operational issues will become much easier to handle. Keep your roles clean, your ownership clear, and your meetings focused on execution.