Our weekly To-Do completion rate has been stuck at 70 to 80 percent for months, and whenever someone reports an item as not done, they immediately launch into a detailed explanation of why their week was derailed. How do we eliminate the excuse-making during the five-minute review and fix the root cause of missing our 90 percent target?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The five-minute To-Do review in a Level 10 Meeting™ is a binary accounting exercise. It is not an open forum to explain why life got in the way. The only acceptable words during this section are done or not done. If a leader says not done and immediately begins storytelling, the facilitator must cut in immediately and ask: Is this an issue for the list, or will it be done in the next seven days?

When To-Do completion consistently sits below 90 percent, you do not have an effort problem; you have a scoping problem or an accountability problem. Teams miss To-Dos because they assign tasks that are too big for a seven-day commitment, or because people say yes during IDS® without evaluating their actual calendar capacity.

To fix this systematically, execute three steps:
- Enforce the binary response during the meeting. Zero explanation. Drop it down to the Issues List if it is blocking progress or requires help.
- Inspect the size of the To-Dos. A To-Do must be a singular, seven-day action item, not a multi-step project disguised as a task. If it cannot realistically be completed within seven days alongside normal operational duties, it is poorly scoped.
- Revisit GWC™ (Get it, Want it, Capacity to do it) for leaders who chronically fail to hit the mark. When an executive cannot complete their seven-day commitments week after week, they are either overloaded with seat duties or avoiding the hard work of prioritization.

Once you hold a firm line on the binary reporting, the discomfort of repeatedly saying not done in front of peers forces the team to either scope commitments accurately or say no during IDS®.