Our leadership team uses the Level 10 Meeting to share general status updates instead of real issues. How do we force deeper transparency into the IDS portion of the agenda?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your team treats the Issues List as a status-report repository, your culture is struggling with artificial harmony. Leaders prefer polite updates over the friction of exposing their mistakes, vulnerabilities, or missed numbers. An Issues List with fewer than ten to fifteen meaningful items is not proof that the company is healthy; it is proof that your people are hiding problems.

Breaking this dynamic starts with the Scorecard and Rock reviews. The moment a measurable is off track or a Rock is red, it must immediately be pushed to the Issues List. The owner does not get to say it will probably be fine next week. The Integrator or facilitator must insist that any missed metric is dropped down to the list without debate.

Next, the Visionary and Integrator must lead by example by putting their own systemic failures on the board. When the owner or key executive posts an issue admitting that a major initiative has stalled or that they made a bad hiring call, it signals to the room that vulnerability is safe and expected.

Finally, reframe what an issue is. An issue is not just a disaster; it is any unresolved question, idea, opportunity, or broken process. Challenge every team member to enter the room each week with at least two problems to solve. If an executive consistently brings zero issues, either they do not know what is happening in their department, or they are hiding operational pain.