We have several weekly To-Dos on our Level 10 Meeting™ list that are continually reported as "in progress" and carry over for three or four weeks in a row. How do we eliminate this meeting waste and enforce a strict rule that a To-Do must be done or dropped, without letting "in progress" become an acceptable status?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The phrase in progress is the enemy of execution. In a true Level 10 Meeting™, a weekly To-Do is binary. It is either done or it is not done. There is no middle ground, and there is no partial credit. Allowing tasks to linger week after week with no consequence is how meeting waste thrives and accountability dies.

When a To-Do is not completed within its designated seven-day window, the owner must state that it is not done. The facilitator should not allow a status update or an explanation of what has been completed so far.

If a To-Do is missed for a second week, it must immediately be dropped to the Issues List. The team must then IDS® why the task is stuck. Is the owner overloaded? Was the To-Do too large and actually needs to be broken down into smaller steps? Or is there a lack of commitment?

To-Dos are tactical items designed to be resolved quickly. If a task truly takes three or four weeks to complete, it was not defined correctly in the first place. It should have been broken down into smaller, weekly deliverables, or it should have been set as a Rock. By enforcing a strict binary standard and dropping missed To-Dos to the Issues List, you will quickly clean up your meeting and drive a culture of execution.