Our weekly Level 10 Meeting™ agenda is constantly clogged with minor, transactional issues that could easily be resolved with a quick phone call or email during the week. Our leaders seem to be hoarding these issues for the weekly meeting instead of handling them in real time. How do we break this dependence on the L10 as the only communication channel?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The Level 10 Meeting™ is a sacred ninety minutes, but it is not meant to be the only time your leadership team communicates. When leaders hold onto minor, transactional issues all week just to dump them onto the L10 Issues List, they clog the agenda and slow down the speed of the business.

To resolve this, you must establish a clear threshold for what belongs in the Level 10 Meeting™. An issue belongs in the L10 if it is strategic, impacts multiple departments, requires leadership team consensus, or is a recurring systemic problem. If an issue is a simple, one-off operational question, it must be handled immediately outside the meeting.

The facilitator must actively filter the Issues List before and during the meeting. If you see an issue that can be solved with a quick conversation between two leaders, point it out. Say, this looks like a direct conversation between sales and marketing. Please handle this offline today, and let us remove it from the list.

Encourage your team to pick up the phone or schedule a fifteen-minute stand-up during the week to resolve minor issues in real time. This keeps your weekly meeting pulse focused on high-impact problem solving, rather than routine administrative coordination.