Our weekly Level 10 Meeting ratings fluctuate wildly between a 5 and a 9 based on whether an individual leader got their pet topic solved during IDS, rather than how effectively the meeting ran. How do you establish an objective baseline for rating the meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A Level 10 Meeting rating is not a personal satisfaction survey. When leaders grade the pulse based purely on whether their department received attention during IDS, they reveal a fundamental misunderstanding of the meeting's purpose. The Level 10 Meeting exists to solve the greatest operational priorities for the entire organization, not to grant equal stage time to every seat.

To calibrate ratings across your leadership team, establish three objective criteria that define an 8 or better:
- We started on time, followed the agenda sequence strictly, and ended on time without rushing Conclude.
- We maintained total honesty during reporting, with no defensive posturing during Scorecard or Rock updates.
- We prioritized the top three issues as a team, attacked root causes during IDS, and produced clear, seven-day To-Dos.

If the meeting met those three standards, it is an 8 or a 9, even if a leader's individual operational headache sat untouched at number seven on the list. If an executive rates the meeting a 6 or 7, require them to state what structural failure occurred. Did we skip the segue? Did we fail to identify root cause? Did we run ten minutes late? If their only critique is that the team chose to solve a major production outage instead of their marketing campaign question, the Integrator must remind them that prioritizing the company first is exactly what makes a meeting a 10.