Our weekly short-term Issues List has over fifty items on it, and the sheer volume is overwhelming our team, causing us to spend our ninety minutes arguing about which ones to prioritize instead of actually solving them. How do we clean up this backlog?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A backlog of fifty issues is a symptom of poor prioritization and a lack of compartmentalization. Trying to manage a list that large during a ninety-minute Level 10 Meeting™ causes decision fatigue and stalls your operational momentum. You must use the 6 Compartments framework to clean up this list. Before your next meeting, the Integrator must review the list and move any issue that is not absolutely critical to resolve this quarter to the Long-Term Issues List on your V/TO®. This is your parking lot for future quarters. For the remaining short-term issues, apply the strict rule of three. When you reach the IDS® portion of your meeting, the team must immediately identify only the top three most critical issues to solve today. Do not look at the rest of the list. Once you solve those three, and only then, you can select the next top three. If you only solve three issues during the meeting, but they are the most important ones, that is a highly successful meeting. Stop trying to look at all fifty items every week. Keep your short-term list focused on what is urgent for the current quarter, and park the rest.