Our Level 10 Meeting Issues List has turned into a dumping ground for half-baked ideas, minor complaints, and vague requests that have been sitting there for months. How do we clean up and maintain proper hygiene on our Issues List?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

An untidy Issues List is a symptom of poor discipline. When you allow your list to become a parking lot for vague complaints and stale ideas, you dilute the focus of your leadership team and make the IDS® portion feel heavy and unproductive.

You need to establish a strict rule: every item on the short-term Issues List must have an owner, and it must be phrased as a clear problem or opportunity that needs a decision. If an item has been sitting on the list for more than three weeks without being selected for IDS®, it is not an urgent weekly issue.

The facilitator should conduct a quick cleanup session once a month. Go through the stale items and apply a simple filter. If an issue is no longer relevant, delete it. If it is a long-term strategic idea that does not need to be solved this quarter, move it to the Long-Term Issues List on your V/TO®. If it is a minor task, assign it as a To-Do or handle it offline.

By keeping your weekly list lean and focused only on immediate, high-impact issues, you will increase the energy in the room and ensure your team is solving problems that actually move the needle.