Our leadership team members are technically hitting our ninety percent to-do completion rate, but we are finding that the completed tasks are often rushed, low-quality, or only half-done, which means the underlying issues keep popping back up on our list a few weeks later. How do we ensure that done actually means fully resolved?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Hitting a ninety percent to-do completion rate is meaningless if the quality of the completed tasks is poor. When leaders rush through to-dos just to check them off the list before the meeting, they are prioritizing compliance over actual execution. This lazy approach results in half-solved problems that inevitably return to the Issues List, creating a frustrating cycle of wasted time.

To solve this, you must change how your team defines and closes to-dos. Every to-do must be written with a clear, binary definition of success. Instead of writing a vague task like "look into customer billing issues," write "deliver a written root-cause analysis and three recommended solutions to the Integrator by Thursday." This leaves no room for interpretation or half-measures.

When reviewing the to-do list, the owner of the task must state whether it is done or not done. If a task is marked as done, but the outcome did not actually solve the problem, the team must immediately put it back on the Issues List. The facilitator should then lead a brief IDS® session to address why the task was incomplete. If a leader consistently delivers low-quality work on their to-dos, it is a performance issue that must be addressed offline, as they may not be demonstrating that they GWC™ their seat on the Accountability Chart.