Our weekly Level 10 Meeting To Do completion rate has been hovering around sixty to seventy percent for the past two months, with leaders always offering reasonable justifications for why their tasks are not done, which is slowing our operational momentum. How do we raise our accountability standard and hit the EOS benchmark of ninety percent completion?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A consistent failure to hit the ninety percent To Do completion rate is an accountability leak. When leaders repeatedly bring incomplete tasks to the meeting with good excuses, they are prioritizing their daily whirlwind over their commitments to the team. To solve this, you must change how you review the To Do list. First, during the review, the response must be strictly done or not done. No explanations, no context, and no excuses are allowed. When a leader starts explaining why a task is not done, the facilitator must stop them immediately. Explanations dilute accountability and waste time. Second, any To Do that is not done for two consecutive weeks must automatically be dropped to the Issues List. During IDS, the team must diagnose why the task is stalled. Is it a capacity issue, a lack of clarity, or is the leader simply avoiding the work? If it is a capacity issue, look at the Accountability Chart to see if they are overcommitted. Finally, remember that To Dos are seven day commitments. If a leader cannot realistically complete a task within a week, it should not be a weekly To Do, or it needs to be broken down into smaller, weekly increments. By holding a firm, zero tolerance policy on excuses and making incomplete items an issue to be solved, you will quickly restore the operational momentum and push your completion rate back above ninety percent.