How do we stop our leadership team from treating the Level 10 Meeting like a status-reporting session, where they spend the whole time describing what they did last week instead of identifying and solving issues?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The absolute biggest killer of a high-performing Level 10 Meeting™ is the urge to report status. When leaders spend their time explaining why a scorecard metric is red, giving background on their Rocks, or listing all the tasks they completed, they are wasting precious time. Status reporting is passive; problem-solving is active.

The Level 10 Meeting™ structure is designed to limit reporting to the first twenty-five minutes of the ninety-minute block. This is a rapid-fire, high-speed review. The scorecard, Rock review, headlines, and To-Do list are strictly for reporting numbers, on track or off track, and done or not done.

To kill status reporting waste, the facilitator must enforce a hard rule: no explanations. If a scorecard metric is red or a Rock is off track, the only acceptable response is 'off track'. The facilitator must immediately say, 'Drop it to the list', and move on.

By saving all discussion for the IDS® portion of the meeting, you preserve sixty full minutes for solving problems. If an issue is not on the list, it does not get discussed. Teach your team that they do not need to prove they are working by talking about their daily activities; their results on the scorecard will speak for themselves.