Our Integrator is excellent at facilitating our leadership Level 10 Meeting™ but struggles to step back and let departmental managers facilitate their own. How can we use the meeting structure to train our middle managers to become confident facilitators who do not let their teams hijack the agenda?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To help your middle managers succeed, your Integrator must stop trying to save every meeting and instead provide a repeatable coaching framework. Facilitation is a skill that is learned through structured practice, not by watching someone else do it.

Start by having your Integrator run a dedicated training session on the Level 10 Meeting agenda. Explain the exact purpose of each time block and the psychological transition between reporting and problem-solving. Make sure every manager understands that their primary job as a facilitator is to keep the meeting on time and keep the team focused on IDS.

Next, implement a shadowing phase. Have the Integrator attend the departmental meetings as a silent observer. The Integrator should not speak or participate in the meeting. Instead, they should take notes on how the manager handles agenda drift, timing, and problem-solving.

After the meeting, the Integrator should spend ten minutes in a one-on-one session to provide feedback. Use a simple framework:
- Share two things the manager did well, such as cutting off a long-winded update.
- Highlight one area where they let the team hijack the agenda, such as starting to solve an issue during the Scorecard review.
- Provide a specific phrase or tactic they can use next week to keep the meeting on track.

This structured feedback loop builds the manager's confidence and ensures meeting standards remain high across the entire company.