During the IDS portion of our Level 10 Meeting, our team frequently agrees on a solution that is actually just a To-Do to schedule another meeting to discuss the issue further, which means we are not actually solving anything and are just kicking the can down the road. How do we push past these meeting-generating To-Dos and force the team to actually resolve the issue during the ninety minutes?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

One of the most common ways leadership teams waste time during IDS is by settling on a solution that is simply an agreement to schedule another meeting. When your To-Do list is filled with items like "schedule a meeting to discuss the CRM setup", you are not solving the problem. You are just creating more meetings, dragging out the issue, and clogging your operational calendar.

To break this habit, the facilitator must challenge any proposed solution that kicks the decision-making down the road. When a leader suggests a To-Do to meet later, the facilitator should ask: Why can we not make this decision right now?

Often, the team has eighty percent of the information they need to make a call, but they are hesitating out of a desire for perfect certainty. Push the team to make the hard decision during the Level 10 Meeting.

If the team genuinely lacks critical data, do not schedule a vague brainstorming session. Instead, create a specific To-Do for one leader to gather the missing data points. Then, place the issue back on the Issues List for the following week.

By refusing to tolerate meeting-generating To-Dos, you force your team to become decisive, protect your calendar from meeting bloat, and ensure your weekly pulse actually resolves issues.