At some point in the growth of a company, every leadership team bumps into the same uncomfortable truth: growth and success don’t eliminate issues; they multiply them. While that realization can feel frustrating at first, it’s one of the most freeing shifts a leadership team can make.
Once teams truly understand that issues aren’t distractions from the work—they are the work—the day-to-day experience of running a company gets significantly lighter.
At its most fundamental level, the Issues Component of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) exists to help organizations build muscle memory around facing challenges, opportunities, and ideas head-on and solving them in a way that keeps them from resurfacing.
But discipline alone isn’t what makes this powerful. Perspective is.
Renaming the Word “Issues”
One of the most helpful shifts leadership teams can make is to rethink what an “issue” actually is.
Issues are certainly barriers and obstacles—the things that feel heavy, broken, or frustrating. But they’re also ideas. They’re opportunities, hunches, the sense that something is off.
When teams expand their definition of issues this way, something important happens: issues stop feeling like problems to avoid and become fuel for progress.
The Relief of Getting Issues Out of Your Head
It’s human nature to carry issues privately before we ever address them collectively. They stew in the background during meetings. They show up as half-formed thoughts in conversation. They wake you up at 2:00 am to remind you that something is off.
The challenge with holding issues internally isn’t just mental strain. It’s the unspoken in-betweens. The side-eye glances. The misalignment that builds when everyone knows something is wrong, but no one has outright said it.
This is why creating and maintaining an Issues List for the Level 10 Meeting is so transformative. On the surface, it appears to be a simple shared list. In practice, it becomes a container where uncertainty becomes accountability and worry becomes accountable action.
Why Teams Struggle to Solve Issues Effectively
On paper, issue-solving sounds straightforward, right? Identify. Discuss. Solve.
And yes, technically, that is the process.
But saying, “IDS is simple,” is a bit like saying becoming a surgeon is simple because the steps are pre-med, medical school, and residency. The structure is clear. The practice is where it gets real.
Even with a solid framework, teams get stuck. We avoid discomfort. We hesitate to challenge ideas we don’t fully agree with. We rush toward solutions because sitting in uncertainty feels inefficient.
As a result, teams often believe they’re solving issues when they’re actually solving symptoms. And symptoms, as many leadership teams know, have a habit of reappearing, often with more baggage attached.
Downoad the Issue-Solving Track Tool
Identify Comes Before Solve
This is why the Identify step matters more than most teams realize.
Before you Discuss or Solve, you must Identify the root cause, because the stated issue is rarely the real issue
Finding flow with your Issues List starts with accepting that identifying issues is not a failure of leadership. It’s a core responsibility of it. When teams slow down enough to simply name what’s present, they often uncover that there’s more buried beneath the surface.
An operational breakdown may actually be a clarity issue.
A recurring performance concern might reveal an accountability gap.
A customer complaint could point to a misaligned process or a missed opportunity.
But none of that insight is available until the issue is named.
For a deeper dive into mastering the Issues Component, pre-order Issues: Remove the Friction Blocking Your Greatness Through Mastery of IDS™.
A Simple Practice to Start Today
Take five quiet minutes and ask yourself: What is the thing I don’t want to say?
Write it down on a piece of paper. Don’t solve it. Don’t clean it up. Just get it out of your head.
Then consider putting it on the Issues List.
If you’re not quite ready yet, take a moment to reflect, notice what feels true, and then bring it forward. The result of any worry, idea, or hunch should be the same: it makes its way onto the Issues List.
That’s the first step. Get it out of your head. Get it onto the list. Because issues aren’t interruptions to the work. They’re the starting point. The stronger you get at IDS, the stronger your business becomes.
Pre-Order Issues: Remove the Friction Blocking Your Greatness Through Mastery of IDS
If you’re ready to master the Issues Component and strengthen your team’s ability to Identify, Discuss, and Solve the real issues holding you back, the new book Issues: Remove the Friction Blocking Your Greatness Through Mastery of IDS goes deeper into the discipline of solving issues the EOS way. Pre-order your copy today!
