IDS vs. IDO+C
Why Your Leadership Team Needs to Ditch IDS for IDO+C
For years, leadership teams have relied on EOS's IDS process (Identify, Discuss, Solve) to tackle problems in their weekly meetings. It sounds clean, efficient, and complete and, to some degree, it has worked. There's just one problem: it's setting your team up for deeper failure.
The Fatal Flaw in IDS
The word "Solve" creates a dangerous illusion. It suggests that complex organizational problems get resolved in a conference room during a weekly meeting. But when did you last see a real business challenge get "solved" while people sat around a table?
Never. Because that's not how problems work.
Real problems require intervention, implementation, and follow-through both in the short-term and longer-term. They need someone to drive, i.e., own, the solution after everyone leaves the room. IDS pretends otherwise, and this false promise leads to frustration, repeated discussions of the same issues, and a nagging sense that nothing ever gets truly resolved.
Enter IDO-C: A Framework That Works in Reality
IDO-C acknowledges what actually happens in effective leadership teams. Let's break down the critical differences:
Identify remains the same. Remember, symptoms come to your list of issues. As a leadership team, you still need to dig deep and find the root cause rather than chase symptoms or work on the wrong problem. This requires discipline to identify the ‘real’ causality.
Dissent & Discuss replaces the simple "Discuss" with something far more powerful. Before rushing toward solutions, IDO-C creates intentional space for challenge and alternative thinking. "Who sees this differently?" becomes a standard question. "What could go wrong with our approach?" gets asked every time. This isn't about being negative. Contrariwise, it's about avoiding groupthink and surface-level solutions that fall apart under real-world pressure.
Own replaces "Solve" with honest clarity about next steps and accountability. Instead of pretending problems get resolved in meetings, ‘Own’ focuses on determining the path forward and identifying who will drive the solution. This step creates clear ownership, realistic timelines, and defined check-in points.
Commit makes explicit what IDS leaves dangerously implicit. Too many leadership teams assume everyone's on board through simply vocalizing a decision, when they're not. Commitment forces the owner to restate their accountability, the team to confirm their support, and everyone to agree on success measures including timeline.
Why This Matters More Than You Think
The difference between IDS and IDO-C is cultural. IDS trains leadership teams to believe that talking about problems equals solving them. IDO-C trains teams to be realistic about implementation and explicit about accountability.
Consider your last few leadership meetings. How many times did you "solve" a problem using IDS, only to find yourself discussing the same issue weeks/months later? How often did team members leave thinking different people were responsible for next steps?
IDO-C eliminates these frustrations by building ownership and commitment directly into the process. It acknowledges that the real work begins after the meeting ends.
Making the Switch
The beauty of IDO-C is that it builds on what your team already knows. The identification phase stays the same. Discussion gets enhanced with intentional dissent/alternatives/possibilities. And instead of false completion, you get real clarity on a known path forward through ownership and commitment.
Your leadership team deserves a problem-solving framework that works in the real world, not one that sounds good on paper but breaks down in practice. IDO-C delivers what IDS promises: actual progress on the problems that matter most.
Stop pretending you solve problems in meetings. Start getting clear on who will solve them afterward. Change from IDS to IDO-C, solving problems/issues and building a better culture.
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