Our leadership team is hitting our ninety percent To-Do completion rate target on paper, but the quality of the execution is sloppy and often requires rework, which defeats the purpose of the weekly pulse. How do we enforce quality of execution on our weekly To-Do list?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Hitting a ninety percent completion rate is meaningless if the work is half-baked. When leaders rush to mark To-Dos as done just to avoid being called out during the weekly pulse, they are choosing compliance over actual progress.

To stop this, you must change how To-Dos are defined and verified during your Level 10 Meeting™.

First, enforce a strict definition of done when the To-Do is created. Do not accept vague descriptions like, look into marketing plan, or, work on hiring process. Instead, use specific, binary language. Write, Draft and share hiring checklist with operations team. This makes it impossible to claim completion without delivering the specific artifact.

Second, use the verification step. When reviewing the To-Do list, the owner must state what they accomplished. If a To-Do was to draft a document, they must confirm it has been sent or uploaded. If other team members find the work is incomplete or requires major rework, the To-Do is not done. It must roll over, and the completion rate must reflect that failure.

Finally, address the cultural issue during your meeting rating. If sloppy work is being pushed through, rate the meeting lower and bring it up as an issue.

Quality execution is vital as you scale and prepare for a clean exit. Sloppy work creates operational debt that hurts value. Run your weekly pulse with a high standard, define your outcomes clearly, and hold your team accountable for results, not just checked boxes.