Our weekly leadership meetings are running over ninety minutes, we never finish the IDS portion, and everyone leaves feeling drained. What are we doing wrong?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

If your weekly meetings are draining and running over, you are likely violating the discipline of the Level 10 Meeting™ format. First, you must respect the hard ninety-minute time limit. A meeting that drags on destroys productivity and morale. Start on time and end on time, no matter what.

Second, you are probably spending too much time reporting and not enough time solving. The first thirty minutes of the meeting are strictly for reporting and sharing updates, with absolutely no discussion allowed. If an item needs discussion, drop it down to the Issues List. The heart of the meeting is the IDS® portion, which stands for Identify, Discuss, Solve. Most teams fail here because they discuss a symptom for forty minutes without ever identifying the root cause.

You must spend the majority of your time identifying the real issue. Once the root cause is clear, the discussion should be brief, leading directly to an action item. If your team is getting bogged down in endless debate, it might be due to their cognitive or conative styles. High Fact Finders will want to gather endless information before making a decision. You must push the team to make a decision with seventy percent of the data. Keep the meeting moving, document clear action items, and hold each other accountable to the clock.