Our weekly Level 10 Meeting Issues List has ballooned to over thirty items, and our leadership team feels overwhelmed just looking at it. How do we clean up this massive list without losing track of important long-term challenges?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

An overloaded weekly Issues List is a symptom of a team that cannot distinguish between a weekly operational issue and a long-term strategic challenge. If your list has thirty items, you are not running an efficient Level 10 Meeting™: you are staring at a cluttered junk drawer. First, understand that the weekly Issues List is only for problems that must be solved this week to keep the company on track for the quarter. If an issue can wait more than seven days, it does not belong on this list. Review the entire list with your team and run a ruthless triage. Any issue that is strategic, structural, or has a timeline longer than this quarter must be moved to your V/TO® Long-Term Issues List. That list is reviewed and solved during your quarterly and annual planning sessions, not during your weekly ninety-minute pulse. Second, delete any minor issues that can be solved offline with a quick conversation between two leaders. Do not let your team use the Level 10 Meeting™ as a crutch to avoid having direct, one-on-one conversations during the week. Once you have purged the list, hold the line. Your weekly Issues List should rarely exceed ten to fifteen active items. Keep it lean, focus on the top three priorities every week, and trust your V/TO® to hold your long-term strategic ideas.