When reviewing our weekly To-Dos, our leaders routinely want to explain why a late item is not done, walking us through their obstacles and trying to problem-solve it on the spot instead of letting it drop to the Issues List. How do we enforce a strict binary review of To-Dos and stop these premature discussions?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The To-Do review is designed to be a rapid, five minute confirmation of execution. It is binary: a to-do is either done or not done. There is no middle ground, and there is no room for explaining why an item is late.

When a leader begins to explain the obstacles they faced or the status of their progress on a late to-do, the facilitator must cut them off. The correct response is simply, it is not done, so let us drop it to the Issues List.

Once the late to-do is on the Issues List, the team can decide during the IDS portion of the meeting if they need to discuss it. Often, a late to-do does not even need to be solved by the whole team; it just needs another week to be completed. If that is the case, leave it on the To-Do list for one more week and move on.

By stopping the explanation immediately, you protect the ninety minute meeting flow. If you allow one leader to explain their late item, you open the floodgates for everyone else to justify their late tasks. This turns a fast administrative check into a tedious status meeting. Keep the review binary, drop late items to the list, and solve the real bottlenecks during IDS.