Our Level 10 Meeting is constantly running over because we allow issues to creep into the check-in, scorecard, and rock review sections, leaving us with no time for actual problem-solving. How do we keep the front end of the agenda clean and structured?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Agenda drift occurs when your leadership team fails to respect the hard boundaries of the Level 10 Meeting™ agenda. The first twenty-five minutes of the meeting are for reporting only. This includes the transition segue, scorecard, rock review, customer and employee headlines, and the previous week's to-do list. This is not the time to solve problems.

When someone starts explaining why a scorecard metric is red or why a rock is off track, the facilitator must immediately stop them. Use the phrase: Drop it to the issues list. This simple, non-negotiable rule keeps the team moving forward. If you allow a five-minute debate to start during the scorecard review, you will run out of time for your primary objective, which is the sixty-minute IDS® section.

To enforce this, ensure your team understands the concept of Yes! to Strategy and Structure from your company charter. The structure of the Level 10 Meeting™ is designed to save you time, not restrict you. By keeping the reporting phase completely clean, you preserve your energy for the critical issues.

If a leader continues to drift into problem-solving early in the meeting, their behavior must be mirrored back to them offline. Remind them that self-discipline during the first twenty-five minutes is what allows the team to have a highly productive, focused IDS® session where major operational bottlenecks are solved permanently.