Our weekly Level 10 Meeting™ frequently goes over the ninety-minute limit because our Issues List is always too long and we spend too much time trying to decide what to talk about. How do we manage this list to keep our meetings tight?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A bloated Issues List is the primary reason Level 10 Meeting™ sessions run long. When you have dozens of items on your list, your team suffers from decision fatigue before you even begin the IDS® portion of the meeting. You must ruthlessly curate your list to maintain a tight ninety-minute cadence.

First, implement a strict rule that the Issues List is not a storage unit for every minor detail. Many items on your list can be handled outside the meeting through direct communication between two team members. Encourage your team to solve department-level issues offline and only bring true cross-functional bottlenecks to the leadership team list.

Second, change how you prioritize. Before you start IDS®, the team must quickly identify the top three issues that need to be solved today. Do not look at the rest of the list. Focus entirely on issue number one, solve it, then move to number two, and then to number three. If you only solve those top three issues, you have had a highly successful meeting.

Finally, have your Integrator own the list hygiene. At the end of every quarter, purge the remaining issues. If an issue has sat on the list for several weeks without being prioritized, it is clearly not urgent. Move it to the long-term issues list on your V/TO® or drop it entirely. Keeping your list lean keeps your focus sharp and your meeting under ninety minutes.