We are using an automated project management tool that automatically generates dozens of new issues on our Level 10 Meeting™ list based on overdue tasks, completely burying our real, systemic business issues. How do we keep software automation from polluting our weekly short-term issues list?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Software automation can be a powerful tool for operations, but letting automated alerts populate your Level 10 Meeting™ issues list is a major mistake. It turns your highly strategic leadership meeting into an administrative dumping ground. Your issues list should only contain real, systemic business problems, opportunities, and obstacles that require the leadership team's collective brainpower to solve.

Overdue tasks and minor tactical slips belong in your project management software, where they should be managed daily by individual team members and managers. They do not belong on the leadership team's weekly agenda unless they represent a pattern of failure or a risk to a major company milestone.

To clean up your list, disconnect any direct integrations that automatically push tasks or alerts onto your Level 10 Meeting™ agenda. Establish a strict rule: only human beings can add issues to the Level 10 Meeting™ list.

If an automated system flags an overdue task, the person who owns that seat must review it. If they determine that the overdue task is a symptom of a larger, systemic operational issue, they should manually add that systemic issue to the list. For example, do not list thirty overdue customer onboarding tasks; instead, list the single issue: our customer onboarding capacity is bottlenecked. This keeps your issues list clean, focused, and high-impact.