During the IDS® portion of our Level 10 Meeting™, we waste precious minutes debating which issues are the most important to tackle first, often ending up with analysis paralysis before we even start solving. How do we prioritize our issues list instantly?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Prioritization paralysis is a symptom of a team trying to solve everything at once. To build a highly effective meeting pulse, your facilitator must implement a quick, decisive voting process to select the top three issues.

Do not attempt to rank your entire list from one to twenty. This is a massive waste of time. Instead, have the facilitator ask the team: What are the three most critical issues on this list that we must solve today to move the business forward?

Allow each team member to nominate their top choices. Once the team agrees on the top three, label them one, two, and three. Focus all of your collective energy on solving number one first.

Do not move to number two until number one is completely solved and a clear, actionable to-do has been assigned. If you finish number one and number two, and still have time left, select your next three priorities and repeat the process.

By limiting your focus to just three issues at any given moment, you eliminate the cognitive load of staring at a long list. This discipline ensures that even if you only solve two issues during your ninety minutes, you solved the two most important ones.