[EP3] The Road Trip Rule for Issue Solving

In this episode of Root Issue Radio, Jill Young and Sue Hawkes continue their conversation on the five leadership abilities, focusing on predicting as a key part of healthy issue solving. They explore how leaders can think clearly about both short-term and long-term needs without overwhelming the team or turning every idea into an immediate action item.

Jill and Sue talk about the difference between what is urgent now and what belongs on a future rock, highlighting the discipline needed to keep the 90-day focus clean and manageable. They share how leaders often overestimate what can be done right now and underestimate what is possible over time, which can create burnout and scatter team energy.

The conversation also introduces the idea of a “pocket rock,” where a leader takes on a future-sized project that really belongs in the long-term plan. Jill and Sue use this as a reminder that good prediction protects focus, preserves energy, and keeps teams aligned on what matters most right now.

Listener Takeaway

Strong leadership means knowing what to solve now, what to defer, and what to hold for the future. When teams predict well, they stay focused, protect energy, and solve the right issues at the right time

Get your copy of the Issues Book here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Coming to you live, it's Root Issue Radio with your hosts, expert EOS implementers, and co-authors of the Issues book, Jill Young and Sue Hawks.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

We're on a mission to help you remove friction, fast-track growth, and ignite your greatness. Dial in and let's dig deep.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

And in this, in this episode, we promised you last episode we would kind of follow that five leadership abilities. Last episode, we really unpacked simplicity and delegating and really tied that to a leader, a leader themselves, and how that helps everybody stay energized when we make things simple. And we're delegating, but not just delegating the right things, but stop delegating the wrong things, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Or the things that aren't meant for you in this moment because you can change or change your mind.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

That's right. That's right. So there is a leadership ability that we call predict. And the other day I heard myself say, oh, well, you know, we we want to predict short term and long term because nobody has a crystal ball. And then I'm like, wait, I do. I was gonna say you do. I do have a crystal ball. It's beautiful. It's beautiful. Maybe I could get it out for issue solving sometime.

SPEAKER_01 1:43

We have a disco ball, so that's all I can offer.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

We also have a couple of things. This third leadership ability playing into healthy issue solving. Healthy meaning energetic, and we're all on the same page, and healthy meaning we're giving each other energy and you know, moving forward without it like work.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

I think it's all a contributor to health. Everything we're talking about in these short segments, I think the whole point is to make it safe enough to talk about the things that are not healthy. That's what healthy conflict to me is, is it's all the misalignments. So if an issue is a misalignment, how do we get back to alignment? Well, we've got to have some healthy debate, the greater good lined up to what matters. All the things we work on in IDS, but when you're talking about prediction, there were two things you and I highlighted. You know, listeners, I just want you to know some of the fun of doing this with Jill is the conversation is fluid, and then all of a sudden we want to get back somewhere. But we had two points that we were riffing on, which is how we got to the riff point. And the two points were this. She was talking about very much. We have to have the discipline, and you're not gonna like this. And we say this in our rooms a lot, and I want you to expound on this one, you know, that we can't do it all. We can't stuff 20 pounds in the 10-pound bag, and we also cannot, you know, it's not all meant for this 90-day period. We tend to overestimate what's possible right now and underestimate what's possible for that long term. So that's one data point. Yeah. The second one is sometimes there's multiple solves, one's short, one's long term, and teams leave thinking they've solved it for good when they really haven't filtered it for good. They've done it for now, not next. So why don't you dive into one of those? Because I think those are the two ways prediction really feeds into health.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Yeah. Let's first, let's first unpack short-term issues list versus a long-term issues list. So when we IDS, of course, one of the tools we love the most happens to be my favorite tool, if I could have a favorite tool, is the issues list because it's this big data dump of what's on my mind. It stops me from ruminating because I get this misalignment, like you said, or this misunderstanding, or this idea or opportunity out of my head, and it's onto paper or onto screen these days. Where everybody else on my team can see it. And that is so healthy. And sometimes an idea comes up in my mind that, oh, we could do this in three years, and I just dump it onto the issues list. Well, what happens in teams when we're not disciplined about saying which issues list should this go on, then we overload ourselves with ideas of the future in the current 90-day period. And what we're doing is we're just asking our team to solve issues, expand, expand, expand, expand when really we need to focus on this next 90 days. Um, one of my favorite things to do with teams, especially in um uh in new teams, you know, and I'm teaching them how to prioritize, how to predict what are we going to really focus on in the next 90 days. And Sue, I think you do this too, is I say, hey, write down a list of everything that you think we should do in the next 90 days. And invariably, things end up on that list that we should not do in the next 90 days, but they're thinking we can get it done. And we they write a big list, and then I'm like, cross them off, cross them off that they don't have to happen in the next 90 days. And it's just this discipline of keeping everybody focused on the next 90 days is going to help everybody have energy to focus on the next 90 days. Sometimes we'll say, hey, if you bring something while we're working in this 90-day time period that really needs to happen next quarter or the quarter after that, we get to throw it back over the fence onto the long-term issues list. And the discipline that it takes to do that is, oh, it's it's so uh um emotionally difficult for teams to do because sometimes this thing that's looking at us right now is really exciting. This new thing is really shiny. Sometimes we'll call them shiny things, but teams, um, hear me now and listen to me later. It is chipping away at your energy to focus, to uh, and it's it's pulling the energy in different directions and it will wear people out. It will wear people out. What do you think about that, Sue?

SPEAKER_01 7:07

No, I think it was well said. I was taking some notes while you were talking. You know, when we talk about put everything on the list, it's like a wide angle lens on a camera for those who are photographers or have dealt with cameras, right? We get this broad landscape of all that's possible. But we can't go after all that's possible because it's too broad. And so when we're really sorting and simplifying what we're gonna solve or what rocks to set, or this 90-day window, because really a rock and a goal. A goal is a year of issue solving, a rock is 90 days of issue solving. It's all the meetings and the activities and the things that will sum up to a result, but IDSing works much the same where that discipline of making it a telephoto lens, like staying in a channel in this window of time, really does require that discipline and discernment. And I keep coming back to that word because we have to lean on our integrators here. This is game time because visionaries and salespeople often, right? Our chief of sales and our visionaries are like, but it's all urgent and it's all happening, and I'm bored and I see what's coming, and you do, and that's really important, but that's the now next conversation, and having that conflict is the discussion part where we gotta put the boundaries up because if we do it all in 90 days, we're gonna fail. And we have to have that going back to an earlier episode, possibility probability conversation. I learned that from you early on. We have to be able to sort and simplify there to what's imperative, not just important. It's all important. What's imperative based on what we said we want to do this year, this 90-day 20-mile mark, what must be done right now to sum up to the one year, and then one year to three, and then three to 10. When you can start to do that, you go, my nervous system can let down a little bit and go, there will be time and space, but I'm coming back. And having those two lists clean lets you relax into it and go, we won't forget. It's still there, it's just not yet. And that's the now next part. Sometimes there are multiple solves.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Multiple solves. One of my favorite things to do is hey, this feels like that's your maybe your long-term solve, but do we also need to stop the bleeding right now? Uh and then of course, Sue, we also see it go the opposite way too. I was gonna say more the other one. Stop the bleeding, but we don't think about the long-term solve. Um, let let's unpack that just a little bit. Uh, that there's two solves. Hey, everybody, there might be two solves. What do you see happening there?

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Well, can I can I use my car in the ditch metaphor? Are we trying to do that? For sure, let's do it. Well, so if the car goes in the ditch, Jill, you and I are on a road trip. We're going somewhere really cool, maybe the integratron, more on that some other day. And we're on our road trip, and I'm having so much fun with Jill, I get distracted, and we go in the ditch. And while we're in the ditch, I realize the tire is flat, but she and I have to solve this, right? And I say to her, Oh, Jill, how could we solve this? And she might have 10 or 15 ideas because Jill's pretty resourceful, and so am I. And so we come up with things like, Do you have some thoughts, Jill?

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yeah, well, let's um, you know, the car's in the ditch, but I'm also hungry. Let's grab a snack over there at that diner. Okay, parcel in the ditch.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Help me figure that out. I am all for lunch with you anytime. Anytime.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Um, how about the cars in the ditch, but the flat the tire is flat? Let's change the tire while the car is in the ditch.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Okay, perfect. I think we should call triple A. I don't really like getting my hands dirty. Could we do that?

SPEAKER_00 11:24

Yeah, we can call triple A. Sure. Let's do that. And in the meantime, let's have a snack. Let's have a snack.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah. And so we could call triple A, we could get a ride share, we could rock the car, we could, you know, put some big logs under there, we could change the tire, all these ideas, right? But we're still in the ditch. So that's where we're not triaging for we got to get the car on the road before we can even get to lunch, unless we packed a picnic, which we probably wouldn't have, but you know, so so let's just say what's gonna determine whether we solve that one way over another is the timeline we're dealing with. Like if we have to be at that next small town so we can have that lunch we want to have, because we have to be podcasting, well, then we're gonna have to get that tire on and we can only drive on the spare so long, but we can get to the next town and we can get to lunch. But let's say we didn't have the lunch pending and we happen to pick a pack, pack a picnic, try and say that five times fast. We might walk over because we noticed that there's a big field with a lake, and we're gonna take our stuff and we're gonna call triple A and they'll get here in the next 52 hours. And we're gonna enjoy ourselves because there's no rush. But putting the spare on is a short-term solve. And if we spend all our time while we're in the ditch discussing our options, the car is still not on the road. And most of our train teams swirl there for a bit. And what I want to say is get the car on the road. Jill had the right answer right out of the gate, like, get the tire on and get to the town. Let's have lunch. Okay, but we can't drive on the spare forever. And the only way we know that is by looking at the vision portion of our VTO. Where are we going longer term? And looking at our three-year and one year is gonna inform whether that spare can ride for another town or two, but not for a year, not for three years. We're gonna have to buy a set of tires, Jill. And it's because I had so much fun, I was distracted. And I promise I can solve that. So that's where I want you to get. There's a short term and a long term, but if we use the car, it's what's the timeline riding, what makes sense for now, but what makes sense for next. So when we put that neat, tidy bow on it, we've predicted well for both.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Hmm. And we um had a fun road trip. And a picnic, and a picnic and a fun road trip. Um, and maybe it doesn't feel like work. There's there's something else that I see happening on Teams, is where um they they get into their issue solving and they bring something up and they IDS and the solve is a big thing. It's a big thing. It's oh, we've got to change our sales manager or we've got to rip out the CRM and put in a new one. And they in the middle of the 90 days, somebody says, Oh, I'll take that on. And they take on this giant to-do, which is really rock worthy. It's like a, oh my gosh, we've then just essentially committed to a brand new one-year goal that it's it's so big. Um, when I find teams that do this, I'll say, time out, that sounds like a rock. Can we start next quarter? And and because that was prioritized as one, two, or three, and because it was really irritating, and they really did find the long-term solve, that's when somebody I've I've seen teams go, yep, I can take that on, I can take that on. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then um, they're lovingly known as pocket rocks. I love a rock in my pocket. I'm not gonna tell anyone, it's not on the rock sheet, but I really am gonna get started on this big thing and the discipline for teams to say, okay, we've made the solve, but we're actually not gonna take a to-do. And they take this item, they they've already solved it, they know they need a new ERP, and they take that and they put it on their long-term issues list, and they just in parentheses say, rock idea, rock idea. This is what, you know, rock for Q3, and it relieves a whole bunch of energy to then again go back into the 90 days and keep everybody's energy high and clean. We've already solved it. Um, and then maybe we do need a little bit of a short-term solve, like, hey, uh, this ERP has messed up, but we can do three things in our existing ERP this quarter that are small. Let's retrain people for 15 minutes to say, hey, until we get this fixed, everyone's got to go manually into this thing and check this box. Okay, well, let's do that. But don't take on, they don't take on the big project right now. We already have big projects going on. They're called rocks. And it keeps everybody's uh everybody's workload nice and even, smooth, you know, slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

I think what you said that I want to underscore is you can take a to-do. You just can't take a to-do that's a pocket rock. I have teams ask that very same thing. I've never heard that phrase, so I really like the pocket rock. Um, but that being said, a to-do is a one and done activity. So for those listening who may have taken to-dos that are multi-faceted, that's your first indicator you're sneaking a rock in. If it really is a goal, like Jill was talking about, that can be a rock in the future. And this is why when we're setting your annual goals, we tell you three is better than seven. Because stuff happens every year in business, every year. Name a year it hasn't that you didn't see coming. The only way you can take on some of those unintended sort of rocks is if there's space. So you can't have seven goals and then add more in. For those of you newer to the process, you get better and better over time at having less goals, less rocks that are much more strategic and focused, so that when those great big opportunities come along, like Jill just highlighted so beautifully, you actually can take real to-dos andor real future rocks in due time.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Um, Sue, I think we've unpacked the power of discernment in prediction. Nice. You just added the space here, the short term and the long term, really um using this um disciplined thought as to where we should do things in the right time, in the right spaces, with the right energy. I think it might be fun in the next episode to unpack what it really means and maybe give our listeners some tips on disciplined thought. How do we come into issue solving with a clear mind, seeing things clearly, zooming out a little bit, focusing all those lovely things we know we want when we try to be really great leaders? How about that?

SPEAKER_01 19:02

I'm excited for that one. Thanks, Jill. Thanks for dialing in with us today to download the tools and order your own copy of issues. Go wherever you get books or visit eosworldwide.com.