Our leadership team is consistently averaging a sixty to seventy percent weekly To-Do completion rate in our Level 10 Meetings, and this ongoing drag is starting to delay our quarterly Rocks. How do we permanently drive our completion rate back above the ninety percent standard?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A consistent To-Do completion rate of 60-70% on your leadership team signals a significant issue with accountability and execution. In the EOS system, the expected standard for To-Do completion is 90% or higher every week. Falling below this threshold has direct consequences: it delays your quarterly [Rocks](/qa/fixing-boring-eos-quarterly-sessions) and stalls overall company momentum.

Addressing Low To-Do Completion Rates

To permanently drive your To-Do completion rate back above the 90% standard, the Integrator must implement strict protocols for both To-Do creation and review.

1. Optimize To-Do Creation

Poorly defined or overly broad tasks are a common cause of low completion rates. To fix this, ensure every To-Do meets specific criteria:

• Specificity: Each To-Do must be a highly specific action item.
• Bite-sized: It should be small enough to be easily tackled.
• Time-bound: It must be realistically completable within seven days.

If a task requires three weeks of work, it is not a weekly To-Do. Instead, it is a larger project or a milestone that needs to be broken down into smaller, weekly deliverables. This approach helps ensure that team members understand exactly what is expected and can realistically achieve it.

2. Implement Strict Review During Level 10 Meetings

The Integrator must facilitate a rigorous, binary review during the five-minute To-Do portion of every [Level 10 Meeting](/qa/should-integrator-facilitate-level-10-meetings).

• Binary Response: For each To-Do, the team member must only answer "done" or "not done."
• No Excuses: No explanations, excuses, or status updates are permitted during this phase. This keeps the meeting focused and prevents it from devolving into discussions that belong on the [Issues List](/qa/using-accountability-chart-to-stop-blame-in-ids).

3. Tackle Recurring Incompletion with IDS

If a leader has multiple "not done" items for two consecutive weeks, this issue must be immediately pushed to the weekly Issues List to be addressed during the [IDS](/qa/leadership-team-trust-healthy-conflict) (Identify, Discuss, Solve) portion of the meeting. During IDS, the team must collaboratively get to the root cause of the recurring incompletion by asking:

• Is the person overloaded with too many responsibilities?
• Do they lack the necessary resources to complete the task?
• Are they failing to prioritize their weekly commitments effectively?

Successfully solving these issues is critical. If your team does not hold individuals accountable for their weekly To-Dos, your quarterly commitments will inevitably fail. An Integrator with strong executive presence is essential to enforce these standards consistently, ensuring the team remains accountable and on track.

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