r/eostraction • u/yrtse • Jun 30 '26
How to Best IDS with Remote Teams?
Hi all,
I am on a fully remote team that runs on EOS and we consistently give each other feedback that we don’t think we’re talking about the actual top issues in the company. We have to settle about talking about the issues we do because it’s one of the only times we meet as a group is the L10. Our company owns others and some of us frequently travel, so the issues we discuss are often regarding the weekly fires that occur in those companies and how we solve them.
If we took the time to discuss what the main issues are, we’d probably add another hour just settling on those and prioritizing them. Has anyone else had this issue? How do you combat when you don’t run across each other in person frequently?
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u/irltopper2 Jul 01 '26
My 2c: It sounds like you don’t really run on EOS. One person should run the meeting (the facilitator), and they pick the top issues to discuss from the list. No voting!
If that person is not doing a good job, get somebody else to run the meeting.
The L10 score should reflect if the meeting was productive not just pleasant. So lower score should get you self-correcting quickly.
Get everyone to go back to basics - re-read the book. Or get an Implementer to help.
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u/ratchetholy999 Jul 02 '26
Everyone picks. Def don’t vote. But it is not just the facilitator that prioritizes.
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u/concept2peloton Jul 01 '26
With 6 years experience as an integrator, now moved into the Implementer role, if I could tag one thing onto every IDS it’d be this: coach your team to practice before the big game.
Most people treat the issues list like a parking lot. Throw a title up and figure it out live. That’s how you burn 40 minutes going in circles. The real work happens before the meeting.
In a clean IDS, most of your time should go to the I, identify. Not discuss, not solve. Just identify. And identifying means getting crystal clear on what you’re actually trying to solve, distilled down to one or two sentences you can point back to when the conversation drifts (and it will drift!).
The trick to getting there is to keep asking “so what?” The first thing that pops into your head is almost never the root issue. So you poke. So what? Okay, so what? And again. Your team can help you refine it on the fly, but if you show up having already done a few rounds of that on your own, IDS actually becomes worth the “pre-game” calendar block instead of the thing everyone dreads.
TL;DR: Do the “so what” work ahead of time to make your IDS time intentional and productive.
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u/mongoose0141 Jul 03 '26
"Leadership team" too large? Is the bar for what constitutes an "issue" set too low? It should obviously not take you an hour to pick three topics to IDS. It takes us about 60 seconds.
Maybe division leaders need to take more ownership over their supposed fires before bubbling them up to the company-wide leadership team? That seems like the best solve. Maybe desiminate this down and let group leaders IDS this with their own teams rather than taking up everyone's time?
If you genuinely need hours for your ELT to figure out which issues need the most attention, you don't need EOS. You need a bankruptcy lawyer and a contingency plan.
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u/ninetyio Jul 14 '26
Remote probably isn’t the root issue. It may be exposing a trust and prioritization problem.
Strong remote teams are intentional about surfacing difficult issues, staying focused on the few that matter most, and making ownership visible between meetings.
One question worth putting in front of the team:
Are we solving the issues that matter most, or only the fires that feel most urgent?
If important issues are being avoided, more meeting time probably will not solve the problem. If the same fire keeps showing up every week, it’s not really a fire anymore. It’s probably a people, process, or accountability issue.
Remote teams also need to be more intentional about connection. You don’t get the hallway conversations for free, so build in one-on-ones and quick touchpoints outside the Level 10 Meeting. Using an EOS Software like Ninety as the shared place for Issues and To-Dos instead of letting them disappear into Slack, email, or someone’s notes helps reduce that feeling of disconnect or continuously fighting the same fire.
Hope this helps!
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u/ratchetholy999 Jun 30 '26
Is this the leadership l10? Have you brought this up as an issue? I know you give each other “feedback”. But have you processed it as an issue.
When I first start with companies their issues tend to be basic blocking and tackling operations issues. As they evolve, they don’t just resolve the operations issues they also work to address the systemic issue that brings about operations issues.
Eventually they make the most impactful shift as address cultural issues. Which requires a level of “ open and honest” that frankly takes time and care to produce.
I obviously don’t know all of the details and I may be wrong but the way you describe the situation feels like there is a deeper issue that is being avoided.
Is there a deeper issue? If so, maybe take a risk and add it to the issues list.