Our Level 10 Meeting Issues List is full of vague, single-word entries like marketing or hiring. We spend half our IDS time just trying to figure out what the issue actually is. How do we force team members to write clear, actionable issues before the meeting starts?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When your Level 10 Meeting Issues List is populated with vague, one-word entries like marketing, pricing, or hiring, your team wastes valuable meeting time just trying to define the problem. This is a facilitation failure and a lack of discipline from the team. To solve this, you must implement a strict rule: every issue placed on the list must be written as a clear, concise sentence that identifies a specific obstacle or opportunity. A good issue statement includes who is involved and what the actual problem is. For example, instead of writing hiring, the entry should read: We are behind schedule on hiring the three new account managers. Before your meeting starts, the facilitator should scan the list. If they see a vague entry, they should require the owner of that issue to clarify it before the meeting begins or simply delete it from the agenda until it is properly defined. During the IDS portion, you must jump straight to the Identify phase by asking the owner: What is the real issue here? They must state the issue in one sentence. If they start telling a long, winding story, stop them. Once the issue is clearly identified in a single, actionable sentence, the team can move directly to discussion and solution. This discipline keeps your issues list clean, focused, and ready for rapid-fire resolution.