During the IDS portion of our Level 10 Meeting, we frequently assign to-dos that are far too large to be completed in seven days, which inevitably leads to them rolling over week after week. How do we write actionable weekly to-dos that can actually be resolved before the next meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A weekly to-do must be something that can and will be completed within seven days. When your Level 10 Meeting™ to-do list is filled with massive, multi-step projects, those items inevitably roll over week after week. This kills the momentum of your meeting pulse and creates false expectations of progress.

To prevent this rollover loop, you must enforce a strict definition of a weekly to-do. When the team agrees on a resolution during IDS®, the resulting action item must be broken down into its very next immediate step. If the overall solution takes three weeks, the to-do for this week is only the first week of work.

For example, instead of writing a to-do like "Revamp the onboarding process," the to-do must be "Draft the outline of the new onboarding steps." The first is a mini-Rock; the second is a seven-day task.

The facilitator must police this as to-dos are being written down. Read every to-do aloud at the end of the meeting. If a task sounds too broad, ask the owner if they can realistically complete it by next Tuesday. If not, make them break it down further until it is a true seven-day action item.