We have multiple leadership team members who constantly mark their Level 10 Meeting To-Dos as done during the meeting because they scrambled to finish them in the five minutes before we started. How do we eliminate this last-minute scrambling that leads to low-quality, rushed work?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When leaders scramble to complete their To-Dos in the minutes leading up to the Level 10 Meeting, they are treating accountability as a checklist to avoid embarrassment rather than a commitment to move the business forward. This results in rushed, poor-quality work that often has to be redone, creating massive operational waste. To solve this, the facilitator must change how we review the To-Do list. Instead of simply asking if a task is done, the facilitator should occasionally audit the quality of the completed To-Dos. For key items, ask: is that completely done, and are the results ready for the team to see? If a To-Do was rushed and the quality is lacking, do not accept it as complete. Mark it as incomplete, keep it on the list for another week, and drop the underlying issue to the Issues List to discuss why we are rushing our commitments. Additionally, remind the team of the definition of a To-Do. It is a commitment to your peers that you will complete a high-quality action item within seven days. If a leader regularly completes tasks at the absolute last minute, it is a time-management issue that needs to be addressed in their quarterly conversation or through direct feedback. Emphasize that doing a task poorly just to say it is done does not help us build a valuable, transferable business.