During our weekly IDS session, a leader will agree to discuss a prioritized issue but then immediately reframe the topic to complain about a completely different, unrelated process bottleneck. How do we prevent this conversational drift and keep the team focused on the original issue?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

This is classic bait-and-switch agenda drift. It happens because team members often have a personal pet peeve they are desperate to air, and they will hijack any prioritized issue to do so. The second someone says, speaking of that, let me tell you about this other problem, your meeting is off the rails. The facilitator must step in instantly. When someone attempts to redirect the conversation, the facilitator must ask a simple, direct question: Does this point help us identify, discuss, or solve the specific issue currently on the board? If the answer is no, or if they have to stretch to make a connection, the facilitator must stop them. Instruct the scribe to add the new topic to the bottom of the Issues List as a separate item, and pull the team back to the active issue. Do not worry about hurting feelings. A great facilitator protects the team's collective time by keeping everyone focused on solving one defined problem at a time.