Better questions always lead to better answers. If you skip the questions, you skip the truth.
3. Discuss Becomes a Polite Chat Instead of a Disciplined Exchange
Discuss is meant to be structured, honest & efficient. The Issues Solving Track reminds us that everyone contributes, but they say it once & only once. Anything repeated is politicking, not problem-solving.
What I see instead is repetition, tangents, history lessons & plenty of sideways storytelling. By the time everyone has finished saying the same thing three times, the energy has drained from the room, & the clarity has evaporated.
Discuss should feel like puzzle pieces being laid on the table, not the same piece being waved around by five different people.
4. Teams Jump to Solutions & End Up Fixing Symptoms, Not Causes
One of my favourite examples is the real story I included in the IDS sheet. A team came to their meeting saying, “Sales have dropped, we need another salesperson.”
On the surface, it sounded perfectly logical. But once we reframed it as a question & worked through the clarifying questions, it became obvious the real issue was a new CRM that hadn’t been trained or integrated properly. It was stealing two hours of productive time per rep every day.
Hiring someone would have achieved nothing. Asking the right questions solved the real problem.
This is exactly why Identify matters so much. Symptoms are comfortable. Causes are uncomfortable. But only causes give you permanent fixes.
5. People Avoid Making a Real Decision
The Solve step is not a philosophical exercise. It means choosing one clear seven-day action, with one owner, reviewed the following week. Both the EOS track & my own sheet spell this out clearly: every issue ends with one next step that moves the business forward.
Yet I watch far too many teams walk out of meetings with vague intentions that evaporate within 24 hours.
If there is no owner, no date & no review, nothing has been solved. It’s that simple.
6. Family Business Dynamics Creep in Unnoticed
In family businesses, people often speak from the wrong circle without realising it. Sometimes it’s a Family concern dressed up as a business decision. Sometimes it’s an Ownership perspective presented as operational logic.
If you’re not clear on which hat you’re wearing, IDS becomes muddy. The clarifying questions in my sheet help surface this because they force you to specify who is impacted, what has changed & why it matters to the business. That clarity prevents emotional cross-contamination.
Clean hats create clean decisions.
So what does doing IDS properly look like?
It looks exactly like the process I’ve laid out in the sheet:
- Identify: Slow down. Turn the issue into a question. Ask the clarifying questions. Don’t move on until the team can define the issue in one or two crisp sentences.
- Discuss: Everyone contributes once. Stay on track. Park tangents. Bring curiosity, not judgement.
- Solve: Choose one seven-day action. Assign exactly one owner. Review it next week. No exceptions.
IDS isn’t a meeting tactic. It’s a discipline. When you use it properly, you stop recycling frustrations & start removing them permanently.
If you want your team solving issues instead of circling them endlessly, it starts with sharpening your IDS muscles.
