When we identify a major operational bottleneck during IDS, we frequently assign the resulting to-do to the entire leadership team because it affects all of our departments. This always leads to zero accountability and the task getting ignored. How do we handle issue ownership and to-do assignment when a problem truly requires collective action?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When it comes to accountability on a healthy leadership team running on EOS®, if everyone is responsible, then absolutely no one is responsible. Assigning a weekly to-do to multiple people or to the entire team is a guarantee that the work will not get done. It dilutes ownership and allows individuals to assume that someone else is handling the task.

Every single to-do on your Level 10 Meeting™ agenda must have one, and only one, owner. That owner is the single point of accountability for ensuring the task is completed by the next meeting.

If a project truly requires input or action from multiple team members, you must still assign the primary to-do to one leader. That leader is responsible for coordinating the effort, scheduling any necessary sidebars, and gathering the required input from their peers. The other team members may receive individual, supporting to-dos that are also binary and tracked separately.

For example, do not write a to-do that says leadership team reviews the new client proposal. Instead, assign a to-do to the Sales leader that says compile feedback on the new client proposal, and assign separate to-dos to the other leaders to email their feedback to the Sales leader by Thursday. This keeps accountability crystal clear.