As we prepare the business for an eventual clean exit, we notice our Level 10 Meeting™ Issues List is increasingly flooded with tactical noise that does not align with our V/TO® or Core Focus. How do we filter these out before they even get to the meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

As you prepare your company for a clean exit, your Level 10 Meeting must evolve. Buyers want to see a leadership team that operates strategically, not a team that is constantly bogged down in minor tactical noise. If your short term Issues List is cluttered with small operational questions, you are failing to maintain your company Charter.

To clean up this list, you must implement a strict filter before any issue is allowed onto the Level 10 agenda. Every issue must be viewed through the lens of your V/TO and your company Core Focus.

When an issue is raised, the facilitator should ask a simple qualifying question: Does this issue impact our ability to hit our quarterly Rocks, achieve our One Year Plan, or maintain our Core Focus? If the answer is no, the issue does not belong on the leadership team's Level 10 list.

These minor tactical issues must be pushed down to departmental meetings or resolved offline. Your leadership team must protect its ninety minutes for high leverage discussions that build long term enterprise value.

By enforcing this filter, you teach your team to solve their own minor problems rather than escalating them to the leadership table. This demonstrates to future buyers that your organization is mature and that your leadership team is focused on driving traction rather than managing day to day chaos.