We struggle to keep our weekly Level 10 Meeting™ under ninety minutes, not because of IDS® triage, but because we spend way too much time debating scorecard metrics and sharing updates during the first thirty minutes. How do we tighten up the first half of the meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The secret to keeping your Level 10 Meeting™ under ninety minutes is ruthlessly enforcing the rules of the first thirty minutes. Most leadership teams let the reporting section drag on because they allow storytelling and issue-solving to creep in early. The first thirty minutes of the meeting must be rapid-fire reporting only.

Follow these strict guidelines to protect your time:

- The Scorecard review must take five minutes. Read the number and state whether it is on track or off track. No explanations are allowed. If a number is off track, drop it to the Issues List.
- Rock review is five minutes. State whether your Rock is on track or off track. If it is off track, drop it to the Issues List. No stories about why you are behind.
- People Headlines is five minutes. State the headline. If it requires a discussion, drop it to the Issues List.
- To-Do List is five minutes. Review last week's tasks. They are either done or not done. If a task is not done and is blocking progress, drop it to the Issues List.

This leaves you with a full sixty minutes for the Identify, Discuss, and Solve phase. If you allow any discussion during the first thirty minutes, you will rob yourself of the time needed to actually solve your business problems. Run the first half of your meeting like a metronome. State the facts, build the Issues List, and save all the talking for the final hour.