During the IDS portion of our weekly Level 10 Meeting, our leadership team constantly tries to solve long-term strategic issues from our V/TO instead of focusing on the immediate weekly operational issues. How do we keep these high-level strategic discussions from derailing our weekly execution pulse?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ is designed to manage the ninety-day run. It is not the place to debate your ten-year target, your marketing strategy, or complex structural changes to your organization. When long-term, high-level strategic issues creep into your weekly IDS® session, they hijack the time needed to solve the immediate operational roadblocks that are preventing your team from hitting their current weekly numbers or completing their quarterly Rocks.

To stop this drift, the facilitator must act as a strict gatekeeper. Every time an issue is introduced, ask a simple qualifying question: does this issue need to be resolved to help us hit our goals this week, this month, or this quarter? If the answer is no, the issue does not belong on the weekly Issues List. Instead, push it immediately to the long-term Issues List on your V/TO® (Vision/traction Organizer).

This long-term list acts as a parking lot for big ideas and strategic debates. Tell the team that these items will be thoroughly addressed during your next quarterly planning session. Knowing there is a dedicated, distraction-free space for these discussions helps the visionary and other strategic thinkers let go of the issue in the moment. Keep your weekly meeting focused entirely on immediate execution.