When our leadership team rates our Level 10 Meeting™ at the very end of the session, we notice a massive split where I rate it a nine or ten but my team rates it a five or six, and we do not have time left to unpack the discrepancy. How do we resolve this feedback gap without running over time?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A wide split in meeting ratings indicates a deep disconnect between your perception of progress and your team's reality. If you rate the meeting a ten while your team rates it a five, you are likely enjoying the conversation while they are feeling fatigued, unheard, or frustrated by a lack of real resolution. You must not let the meeting run over to debate this, but you also cannot ignore it.

The rule of the Level 10 Meeting™ is that any rating below an eight requires a brief, one-sentence explanation of why. When a team member rates the meeting a five, they must state the specific reason immediately. For example, they might say, we spent forty minutes on one issue and did not get to the rest. Or, we did not actually solve the root cause of the billing issue. Do not open a debate on their feedback. Simply capture the feedback on the issues list for the following week.

By placing the low rating explanations directly onto the short-term issues list for the next week, you treat the meeting's poor execution as an operational issue to be solved through the IDS® process. This keeps you from running over time while ensuring the team knows their feedback is valued. Over time, this discipline forces everyone to prepare better, self-police their behaviors during the meeting, and align their expectations of what a true ten looks like.