Our team's weekly to-do completion rate has hovered around seventy percent for two months, and everyone blames a sudden surge in daily operational fires. How do we get back to the ninety percent threshold without accepting these excuses?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A consistent seventy percent to-do completion rate is a clear warning sign of a business drifting out of control. When your leadership team repeatedly blames operational fires for missing their weekly commitments, they are choosing the urgent over the important. To fix this, you must hold a hard line during your weekly Level 10 Meeting™.

First, verify that the to-dos being generated during the IDS® portion are actual weekly actions and not major projects. A proper to-do is a specific, bite-sized task that can easily be completed within seven days. If the tasks are too broad, teach your team to break them down into smaller steps.

Second, enforce the rule of accountability. If a team member agrees to a to-do, they are making a promise to the rest of the leadership team. When a task is missed two weeks in a row, it must immediately be dropped down to the short-term Issues List. Do not let them off the hook with a quick excuse during the to-do review. Treat the missed commitment as an issue to be solved through the IDS® process. Ask the hard question: Is this a time-management issue, a capacity issue, or a GWC™ problem where the person does not truly get, want, or have the capacity to do their job?

By treating missed to-dos as operational bottlenecks rather than acceptable delays, you will shift the culture. Your team will stop committing to things they cannot deliver and will start managing their time to protect their execution commitments.