Our leadership team consistently rates our Level 10 Meeting™ as an eight or nine out of ten, but our actual execution is sluggish and we are missing our Rocks. How do we break this rating inflation and get our team to rate the meeting honestly?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your team scores every meeting an eight or nine while performance is lagging, you are dealing with politeness, not productivity. A high rating must reflect execution and traction, not just good vibes. The score is a serious evaluation of whether the meeting was a highly productive use of everyone's time.

To break this rating inflation, the facilitator must redefine what a ten actually means. A ten means you started on time, ended on time, followed the agenda, completed ninety percent of your To-Dos, and solved your most critical issues permanently. If your Rocks are failing and To-Dos are dropping, the meeting is not a ten.

Establish a hard rule for rating. Anyone who rates the meeting below an eight must state exactly why. More importantly, challenge high ratings. If someone rates the meeting a nine but the team spent forty minutes circling an issue without solving it, ask them directly how they justify that score.

Force your team to look at the metrics before they speak. If your weekly scorecard has multiple red lines and your To-Do completion is fifty percent, a rating of eight or nine is a lie. Call out the misalignment during the rating section. Keep the focus on results. When you demand intellectual honesty in the rating, you force the team to confront their actual execution.