When someone finally musters the courage to rate our Level 10 Meeting a five or a six, the rest of the leadership team immediately gets defensive and spends ten minutes arguing about the rating. How do we handle low ratings constructively without starting a second debate at the very end of the meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A low rating is a gift, not an attack. When a leadership team member rates a meeting below an eight, they are highlighting a breakdown in your operational discipline. Getting defensive or debating their rating at the very end of the meeting is the fastest way to ensure they never give an honest rating again, which destroys your team trust.

To handle a low rating correctly, the facilitator must ask one simple question: Why? The person who gave the low rating must state their reason in ten seconds or less. They might say: We spent thirty minutes on one minor issue, or we did not start on time.

Once they state their reason, there is absolutely no debate allowed. The team does not get to explain why they went over time, and no one gets to defend their behavior. The facilitator simply records the rating and the feedback, and the meeting is adjourned immediately.

The feedback is then automatically treated as a short-term issue for the following week. During the very next Level 10 Meeting, that feedback should be placed at the top of the Issues List. You will run the entire meeting, and when you get to IDS, you will address the meeting quality issue first. By deferring the discussion to the next weekly pulse, you prevent the current meeting from bleeding past the ninety-minute mark and give everyone time to cool down and reflect on how to improve the meeting flow.