Our leadership team uses our Level 10 Meeting to solve low-stakes administrative issues while avoiding the messy, high-conflict operational bottlenecks. How do we force the team to tackle the real elephants on the Issues List?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Human beings naturally gravitate toward easy problems because solving them provides a quick hit of dopamine. Checking off five minor logistical tasks feels productive, but it leaves your core operational constraints completely untouched.

To break this avoidance pattern, the Integrator must rigorously enforce the prioritization rule in the Level 10 Meeting. You never work down the Issues List chronologically. You never let individual leaders cherry-pick their favorite topic.

Before you touch a single issue, look at the entire list and force the team to identify issue number one, issue number two, and issue number three. These must be the three most critical issues facing the business today. Ask directly: If we only solve one thing today that moves the needle on our 1-Year Plan or quarterly Rocks, what is it?

If an issue is uncomfortable, involves interpersonal conflict, or challenges an executive pet project, that is precisely the issue that needs to be number one.

Once the top three are selected, you begin with number one and stay on it until it is truly identified, discussed, and solved. If solving number one takes forty-five minutes, that is forty-five minutes well spent. An executive team that thoroughly solves one massive structural bottleneck creates far more enterprise value than a team that sweeps through ten administrative chores. Push past the discomfort and hunt for the root cause.