I trust you’re aware of the Issue Solving Track (IDS) that we teach in the EOS Process. It’s a simple and effective approach to issues resolution. If not, please download it here.
One of the real arts to making sure that issues are solved is at the end of “IDSing” your issue, problem, idea or opportunity. Someone, usually the person running the meeting, must make the “Conclusion Statement” when all of the dialogue is complete and you have identified, discussed, and solved the issue. Someone says, “Okay, just to make sure we’re all on the same page, we agree that John has a to-do to call Sally and cancel the account, and we’re using ABC company from this day forward. Right?”
Do not move forward until everyone says “yes.” One out of three times, a 10-minute conversation will ensue. This is the best thing that can happen because those 10 minutes just saved 30 minutes of rehashing it the next week because someone was confused or wasn’t fully committed to the decision.
As a leadership team, you meet for 90 minutes in your weekly Level 10, for a full day in your quarterly session, and for two full days in your annual planning session. That’s 115 hours per year of solving 350 issues on average. If you don’t make the “Conclusion Statement” at the end of ”IDSing” each one, one out of three will resurface. Statistically, that’s over 100 unresolved issues that will cause major inefficiencies in your organization this year. You can prevent it right now with this one discipline.
Try it in your next meeting. It works!