We spend our Level 10 Meetings discussing the same operational issues week after week, but they never actually go away. How do we break this cycle and solve them permanently?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If you find your team discussing the same issues week after week, you are not actually solving them. You are merely discussing them and applying temporary patches. To break this cycle, you must master the IDS® process, specifically focusing on the first step: Identify.

Most teams fail at IDS because they spend eighty percent of their time discussing symptoms rather than identifying the root cause. For example, if sales are down, the team might spend an hour debating new marketing campaigns. But the real issue might be that your sales representatives are not following the core sales process, or your pricing model is outdated. You must dig deep, ask hard questions, and refuse to move to the discussion phase until everyone agrees on the exact, underlying problem.

Once you have identified the real issue, move to the Discuss phase. Keep the conversation focused and brief. Avoid letting team members repeat themselves or go off on tangents.

Finally, in the Solve phase, you must reach a clear, actionable resolution. Every solved issue must result in a concrete To-Do assigned to one specific person, with a clear deadline. If an issue does not have an owner and a deadline, it is not solved. By enforcing this level of discipline, you ensure that issues are resolved permanently, freeing up your team's mental bandwidth to focus on growth.