We have a large leadership team of nine people, and our weekly Level 10 Meeting is routinely dragging past ninety minutes because everyone feels the need to give a status update. How do we keep our meeting strictly under ninety minutes without cutting out key voices?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A nine-person leadership team is at the absolute upper limit of what is effective for a Level 10 Meeting™, and the reason you are running over ninety minutes is that you are allowing status updates to creep into the agenda. The meeting is not designed for updates. It is designed to identify and solve problems.

To fix this, your Integrator must strictly police the first twenty-five minutes of the meeting. The reporting section, which includes the Scorecard, Rock review, and To-Do list, must be kept entirely binary. When reviewing Rocks, the response is strictly on track or off track. When reviewing To-Dos, the response is done or not done. No explanations, no backstories, and no justifications are allowed during this portion.

If a number is off track or a Rock is struggling, it simply gets dropped down to the Issues List. Do not start discussing it or trying to fix it on the spot. The actual solving happens only during the IDS® portion of the meeting, which should occupy a full sixty minutes.

Additionally, look at who is in the room. A nine-person leadership team often indicates that your Accountability Chart is not properly structured. You may have people on the leadership team who should actually report to a department head. Use your Accountability Chart to streamline the team. If nine is the correct number, then the Integrator must hold a hard line, cut off conversational drift, and instantly push any elaboration to the Issues List.