Our leadership team is great at identifying issues, but we waste valuable time in our Level 10 Meeting debating the history and context of the problem rather than proposing solutions. How do we force the team to stop admiring the problem and start solving it?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Problem admiring is a common trap where leadership teams spend ninety percent of their time on the Identify and Discuss phases of IDS, leaving almost no time for Solve. To fix this, the facilitator must actively manage the transition between these phases and keep the team focused on solutions. Once an issue has been clearly identified, which should take less than a minute, move immediately to discussion. The moment the team starts repeating the same points, rehashing historical mistakes, or pointing fingers, the facilitator must intervene. Stop the conversation and ask the team: what is the actual problem we are trying to solve here? Then, immediately shift the focus to solutions. Ask each leader for their specific proposal to resolve the issue permanently. If a team member starts telling a long story about how the problem happened, redirect them and ask what they recommend doing about it now. Keep the focus entirely on the future. A healthy IDS session should spend ten percent of the time identifying, twenty percent discussing, and seventy percent solving the problem.