Since our leadership team is growing, we find it impossible to fit our entire weekly agenda, especially the IDS® section, into ninety minutes. Should we extend our Level 10 Meeting™ to two hours, or how do we maintain the strict ninety-minute discipline?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Extending the Level 10 Meeting™ to two hours is a trap. It does not solve the problem of poor focus; it simply gives the team more time to ramble and over-discuss. The ninety-minute limit is a healthy constraint that forces efficiency. If your team is growing, you must become far more ruthless with your prioritization during the IDS® portion of the meeting. You will never solve every issue on your list in a single week, nor should you try. The goal of IDS® is to identify, discuss, and solve the top three most critical issues facing the business today. Once those three are solved, you reprioritize and pick the next top three. If you only solve two issues in sixty minutes, that is a massive win, provided they were the most important ones. If your team has grown past eight people, your real issue might be your Accountability Chart. A leadership team larger than eight members is often too unwieldy for rapid decision-making. Consider whether some members should be moved to departmental Level 10 Meetings™ instead, keeping the leadership team focused and agile.