Our leadership team constantly gets confused about what belongs on our V/TO® Long-Term Issues List versus our weekly Level 10 Meeting™ short-term Issues List, resulting in our weekly list being cluttered with strategic questions. How do we separate them?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Cluttering your weekly Issues List with massive, long-term strategic discussions is a guaranteed way to kill your meeting momentum. It leads to frustration because you spend valuable time debating things you cannot actually solve this week, while immediate operational fires get ignored.

To separate these two lists, use the ninety-day rule. The short-term Issues List on your Level 10 Meeting™ agenda is only for items that can and must be resolved during the current quarter. These are immediate, transactional, and operational problems or opportunities.

The Long-Term Issues List, which lives on your V/TO®, is for issues, ideas, and opportunities that do not need to be solved this quarter. These are strategic questions, major capital expenditures, potential new product lines, or structural changes to your Accountability Chart.

To enforce this boundary, the facilitator must act as a gatekeeper. When a leader adds an issue like our entire pricing strategy is outdated, the facilitator must ask: Do we need to solve this pricing strategy in the next ninety days to hit our current quarterly Rocks?

If the answer is no, move it to the V/TO® Long-Term Issues List immediately. Do not discuss it further. This parks the idea safely so it is not forgotten, but keeps it out of your weekly execution path.

During your quarterly collaborative sessions, you will pull out the Long-Term Issues List, review every item, and decide which ones should be tackled as Rocks for the next quarter. Keep your weekly list lean and focused only on the immediate ninety-day horizon to maintain your traction.