When we get to the IDS portion of our Level 10 Meeting, our team has thirty or forty issues listed, and we waste ten minutes debating which ones are the most important. How do we establish a fast, non-negotiable process for choosing our top three issues to solve first?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Debating what to debate is one of the most frustrating forms of meeting waste. When your weekly Issues List is long, the team naturally disagrees on what needs immediate attention. This struggle happens because the team lacks a clear framework for prioritization.

To fix this, the facilitator must drive a fast, democratic, and non-negotiable voting process that takes less than two minutes. Do not let the team discuss the merits of the issues during this phase.

The facilitator must scan the list and ask the team to call out the top three issues that must be solved today to move the business forward. Every leader has the right to nominate an issue. If multiple leaders nominate different issues, the Integrator makes the final call. The Integrator has the ultimate authority on the Accountability Chart to break ties and set the operational focus.

Once the top three issues are selected, you immediately begin with issue number one. You do not look at the rest of the list until those top three are completely solved and crossed off.

If you finish the first three and still have time left in the ninety minutes, you repeat the quick process to select the next top three. This simple rule prevents debate, establishes immediate alignment, and ensures you are always spending your precious IDS® time on the highest-impact problems.