Our leadership team is stuck in a chronic loop of solving the same structural issues over and over in our Level 10 Meeting. How do we use Keith Cunningham's Thinking Time and the Accountability Chart to break this cycle?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When the same structural issues keep appearing on your IDS list, it means you are treating symptoms instead of the root cause. You are dealing with a predicament instead of a problem.

To break this cycle, you must allocate dedicated Thinking Time. This is a disciplined, thirty to forty-five minute uninterrupted session where you focus on a specific business challenge.

Before your Thinking Time session, formulate a high-value question. Use the framing: How might we restructure our leadership seats so that we can eliminate our chronic operational bottlenecks?

Sit with a pen and pad of paper, away from distractions, and generate solutions. You will often find the root cause is a poorly defined seat or a Right Person, Wrong Seat issue on your Accountability Chart.

For example, you might discover that your operational bottleneck exists because your Head of Operations is trying to manage both logistics and software development. These are two distinct skill sets.

Once you have gained clarity, bring your findings to your next weekly Level 10 Meeting. Use the IDS process to discuss your structural recommendations.

By combining the disciplined focus of Thinking Time with the clarity of the Accountability Chart, you can make objective, permanent changes to your organization. Stop tolerating recurring drama and start designing a scalable structure that supports your exit goals.