Our team members frequently bring up minor operational updates and housekeeping items during the IDS® portion of the Level 10 Meeting™, turning our problem-solving time into a laundry list of announcements. How do we keep announcements out of IDS®?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The IDS® portion of your Level 10 Meeting™ is reserved for solving real, systemic issues that are blocking your Rocks, your Scorecard, or your V/TO® goals. It is not a place for FYIs, status updates, or housekeeping announcements. When you allow these items to slip into IDS®, you waste valuable problem-solving energy on noise.

To eliminate this waste, you must compartmentalize your information according to the EOS Memo on 6 Compartments. If an item is just a quick update, it belongs in the Customer/Employee Headlines segment, which is capped at five minutes. If it does not fit there, it does not belong on the Level 10 Meeting™ agenda at all.

The facilitator must aggressively police the short-term Issues List. When a leader adds an item to the list, the facilitator should ask: Is this an actual issue that requires a decision or a solution, or is it just an announcement? If it is just an announcement, drop it from the list immediately.

Encourage your team to share operational updates through your company's asynchronous communication tools before the meeting starts.

If a team member persists in bringing updates to IDS®, pause the meeting and remind them of your commitment to the Same Page pillar of your Charter. We must respect the team's time by keeping our weekly pulse highly strategic and focused only on solving true obstacles.