Our weekly Level 10 Meeting Issues List has bloated to over fifty items, and we spend valuable time just reading through them to decide what to solve. How do we keep this list clean without losing track of important long-term issues?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A bloated Issues List is a sign of a team that is failing to distinguish between short-term weekly issues and long-term strategic challenges. When your list is too long, the cognitive load is exhausting, and you waste time simply organizing the mess.

To fix this, you must separate your issues into two distinct categories: local weekly issues and V/TO issues.

Local weekly issues are problems that must be solved this week to keep the company on track for the quarter. These are the only issues that belong on your Level 10 Meeting Issues List. If an issue does not need a resolution in the next seven days, it does not belong here.

Long-term issues, such as strategic ideas, system upgrades, or future product lines, belong on your V/TO Issues List. This list is reviewed and addressed during your quarterly and annual planning sessions, not during your weekly meeting.

Once a month, have your Integrator prune the weekly list. Any issue that has sat on the list for more than three weeks without being prioritized should either be killed, moved to the V/TO list, or assigned to a leader to solve offline. Keep your weekly list under fifteen items. This keeps your focus sharp and ensures you are solving the most urgent problems immediately.