Our weekly to-do completion rate has dropped below seventy percent for three weeks in a row, and my team argues that our ninety percent target is unrealistic because they are overwhelmed with day-to-day operations. How do we get our team back to the ninety percent EOS benchmark without lowering our expectations?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A consistently low to-do completion rate is a symptom of poor prioritization, bad estimating, or a lack of personal accountability. When your team misses the ninety percent benchmark, they are letting administrative debt pile up, which stalls your momentum. Do not lower the standard to make people feel better. Instead, change how you write and assign to-dos during your Level 10 Meeting. First, ensure every to-do is truly a seven-day action item. If a task takes three weeks to complete, it is not a to-do, it is a micro-Rock or a multi-step project that needs to be broken down into a specific, bite-sized step for this week. Second, make sure every to-do has a single owner. If two people are responsible, nobody is responsible. Third, when a leader says a to-do is not done for the second week in a row, do not let them off the hook with a reasonable excuse. Drop the incomplete to-do to the Issues List and IDS it. Ask why it was not completed. Is the leader overloaded? Are they neglecting their weekly commitments? Do they lack the GWC to execute their seat on the Accountability Chart? By treating incomplete tasks as operational issues rather than acceptable delays, you restore the weight of a commitment and push the team back to ninety percent execution.