Our leadership team's weekly to-do completion rate is consistently stuck at seventy-five percent, not because of finger-pointing or client delays, but because we are writing vague, multi-week projects as to-dos. How do we teach our team the discipline of drafting true seven-day action items during our Level 10 Meeting™?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The root of your problem is a failure of definition during the IDS® session. A to-do in a Level 10 Meeting™ is not a project, a strategic initiative, or a Rock. It is a single, bite-sized tactical action step that can and must be completed within seven days. When your completion rate is dragging, it is usually because team members are writing down aspirations instead of physical actions. To fix this, your facilitator must enforce a strict filter the moment a to-do is written. Every to-do must start with a physical verb. Do not write 'work on client onboarding.' Instead, write 'call client to schedule kickoff' or 'draft the onboarding checklist.' A physical verb forces the owner to visualize the exact action required. If the task cannot be completed within seven days, it is too big. The facilitator must force the owner to break it down. Ask the seat owner what specific piece of that larger task they can realistically finish before next week. Write only that specific piece down. If they need input from others, the to-do is 'email John for data,' not 'solve the data issue with John.' Finally, make the review of the previous week's to-dos rigorous. If a to-do is carried over to a second week, do not just accept an excuse. Ask why it was scoped poorly or why it was not prioritized. Keeping your rate above ninety percent is about the discipline of scoping, not just working harder.