We are rolling out departmental Level 10 Meetings across our entire organization, but we are struggling with who should facilitate. Should the department head always run their own meeting, or does that stifle the team and prevent the leader from participating fully?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A common mistake when rolling out departmental Level 10 Meetings™ is assuming the department head must facilitate. When the leader of the department facilitates, they often fall back into their natural management habits of directing, teaching, and controlling. This makes the meeting feel like a top-down reporting session rather than a collaborative pulse, and it prevents the leader from fully participating in the problem-solving process during IDS®.

The best practice is to separate the role of the leader from the role of the facilitator. You should encourage other members of the departmental team to facilitate the meeting. This builds leadership capacity within the department, increases engagement, and frees up the department head to actively participate as an equal peer during IDS®.

The facilitator is simply the keeper of the process. Their job is to keep the meeting moving, enforce time limits, and ensure everyone follows the standard Level 10 Meeting™ agenda. They do not need to have all the answers. In fact, having a junior team member facilitate often improves discipline because they are more likely to stick strictly to the clock without getting dragged into the weeds of the issues.

Rotate the facilitator role every quarter or assign it to a capable team member who has strong organizational skills. This keeps the energy high and ensures that the department head can focus on identifying issues, making decisions, and keeping their department aligned on their Rocks and scorecard metrics.