Our Level 10 Meeting™ Issues List is filled with tactical, day-to-day firefighting, and we never seem to address the strategic issues from our V/TO® Issues List. How do we bridge the gap between our weekly tactical issues and our quarterly strategic issues during our ninety-minute pulse?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is easy for a leadership team to get sucked into the operational weeds during their weekly Level 10 Meeting™, leaving the strategic issues on the V/TO® completely untouched. While your weekly Issues List is meant for short-term operational hurdles, you must establish a system to ensure your long-term strategic vision is actually driving your weekly actions.

The mechanism for this is your quarterly meeting pulse. Your V/TO® Issues List contains long-term issues that do not need to be solved this week or even this quarter. However, during your quarterly editing session, you must review that long-term list and decide which items must be brought down to the active, short-term Issues List for the upcoming quarter.

If a strategic issue suddenly becomes urgent mid-quarter, do not let it sit on the V/TO®. Bring it down to your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ Issues List immediately. When you are in the IDS® portion of your weekly meeting, prioritize your issues based on their overall impact on your company's Rocks and annual goals, not just on who is shouting the loudest.

By constantly aligning your weekly prioritization with your quarterly Rocks and V/TO® targets, you ensure that your short-term problem-solving is actually moving the needle on your long-term strategy. This keeps your team focused on high-value leadership work rather than endless firefighting.