Our short-term issues list often has forty or fifty items on it, and we spend the first ten minutes of our IDS session arguing about which issues are the most important to tackle. How do we quickly and efficiently prioritize our issues list without wasting valuable problem-solving time?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Having a massive short-term issues list is normal for a growing, dynamic company, but spending your valuable IDS® time debating what to talk about is a massive waste of operational energy. You must establish a fast, non-negotiable prioritization protocol.

The facilitator must drive this process. As soon as you enter the IDS® portion of the Level 10 Meeting™, the team needs to identify the top three most critical issues on the list. Do not go down the list one by one or allow a debate on the merits of each item.

Instead, ask the leadership team to vote or call out the top three issues that will move the needle most for the company this week. The Integrator or the facilitator makes the final call on the top three items to prevent deadlock.

Once those top three are selected, focus entirely on solving number one. Do not look at number two or three until number one is completely resolved and a clear To-Do has been assigned. If you solve only those top three issues in a meeting, you have had a highly successful session. The remaining issues simply stay on the list for next week, or they can be moved to the Long-Term Issues List on your V/TO® if they are not truly urgent.