Our leadership team to-do completion rate has hovered around 70 percent across the entire team for months because everyone overcommits to massive tasks during IDS. How do we systematically reset our To-Do sizing to hit the 90 percent benchmark?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A team-wide To-Do completion rate below 90 percent is rarely an issue of work ethic. It is almost always a failure of scoping and accountability. Leaders routinely leave the Level 10 Meeting with multi-week projects disguised as seven-day To-Dos. When everything is oversized, commitments slip, and dropping To-Dos becomes culturally acceptable.

To fix this, the Integrator must become the gatekeeper of To-Do creation during the Conclude step and IDS resolution. Enforce three strict rules for every single action item:

First, verify the seven-day boundary. A To-Do in EOS must be something that can be completely finished within seven days. If a leader says, "Implement the new billing software," that is not a To-Do. That is a milestone or a Rock. The proper seven-day To-Do is: "Draft software selection criteria and email to leadership team by Thursday."

Second, limit individual volume. If a department head takes on more than three To-Dos in a single Level 10 Meeting, they will fail to complete them alongside their normal seat duties. Cap commitments at two or three high-impact items per leader per week. If an issue requires ten steps, write only the first step.

Third, demand binary completion. At the next meeting, the item is either Done or Not Done. There are no partial credits, no 80 percent done, and no explanations. If an item is Not Done, it stays on the list for one more week or moves back to the Issues List if it has become a roadblock.

Hold this line for three consecutive weeks. When the team discovers that small, finished actions compound faster than bloated, unfinished projects, the completion rate will immediately surpass 90 percent.