Our leadership team has accumulated an issues list of over fifty items that we carry from week to week, and we waste valuable time simply scrolling through the list and deciding what to prioritize. How do we aggressively purge and manage our long-term versus short-term issues list?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

An issues list with dozens of items is a sign of operational paralysis. When your list is bloated, your leadership team wastes time prioritizing rather than solving. This happens because the team is treating the short-term issues list as a dumping ground for ideas, minor administrative tasks, or long-term strategic projects that do not belong in a weekly Level 10 Meeting™.

To fix this, you must establish a clear filter using your V/TO®. Any issue that does not need to be solved in the next seven days must be moved to your long-term issues list on the V/TO®, which you review during your quarterly meetings. Keep your weekly short-term issues list focused strictly on immediate obstacles.

Additionally, practice aggressive archiving. If an issue has sat at the bottom of the list for more than three weeks, ask the owner if it is truly an issue. If it is not preventing the team from hitting their weekly numbers or quarterly rocks, delete it or move it to a department-level list.

Use your operating charter to guide this process. Agreeing to strategy and structure means respecting the purpose of the weekly issues list. Keep the list lean, ideally under twenty items, so your team can focus their energy on identifying, discussing, and solving the top three issues that will move the needle this week.