Our leadership team members are using the weekly Level 10 Meeting Issues List to blindside each other with cross-departmental problems instead of having a direct conversation first. How do we restore trust and stop these weekly ambushes?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Using the Level 10 Meeting™ Issues List to blindside peers is a destructive behavior that violates the trust and open communication pillars of your company Charter. When leaders use the group setting to ambush each other, it breeds defensiveness, destroys psychological safety, and turns IDS® (Identify, Discuss, Solve) into an arena for political posturing.

The Level 10 Meeting™ is not a substitute for direct communication. It is a forum for solving issues that cannot be resolved through normal, daily leadership channels.

Restoring Trust and Preventing Ambushes

To stop this behavior and restore trust on your team, establish a clear protocol for cross-departmental issues:

• Mandate direct conversations. Leaders must have a direct, one-on-one conversation to resolve an issue before placing it on the leadership team's Issues List. This encourages healthy, direct relationships outside of the meeting room. For more on building trust, see [How do I know if my team actually trusts each other, or if they are just playing nice to avoid conflict?](/qa/leadership-team-trust-healthy-conflict).
• Facilitator inquiry. When a new issue is raised during the meeting, the facilitator must ask the owner if they have discussed this with the affected department head first. This ensures accountability for initial communication.
• Immediate removal if not discussed. If the answer is no, the facilitator must immediately remove the issue from the list and direct the two leaders to handle it offline. This reinforces the expectation of prior direct communication.
• Impasse-only issues. Only allow the issue on the list if they have attempted to solve it together and reached an impasse. This ensures that the leadership team only spends time on issues that truly impact the entire organization and require group input.

By enforcing this rule, you build a stronger foundation of trust, keep your weekly Issues List clean, and ensure that the leadership team focuses on collective problem-solving. This helps prevent the blame game often seen when issues are first introduced in a group setting without prior discussion, as discussed in [How do we use the Accountability Chart to stop the blame game during meetings?](/qa/using-accountability-chart-to-stop-blame-in-ids).

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