Meetings are a necessary part of communication and problem solving for every business, but they aren’t always as productive as they should be.
According to Atlassian, most employees attend 62 meetings per month, and are spending 31 hours in unproductive meetings. And as you know, time is valuable. When it’s not used wisely, it can cost your company a lot of money.
In order to make your meetings as useful as possible, the Entrepreneurial Operating System™ has developed an agenda to keep your meetings on task. It’s called a Level 10 Meeting Agenda.
What is a Level 10 Meeting Agenda?
A Level 10 Meeting is a 90 minute meeting for your leadership team that rates a “10” by your employees, on a scale of 1-10, for productivity and effectiveness. It is designed to help your leadership team create a consistent rhythm that keeps the company focused on the vision. .
The Level 10 Meeting is always 90 minutes in length, always the same day and time every week, and always starts and ends on time – no excuse. It will allow you to identify problems and focus on solving them. It will keep you organized, on task, and encourages you to manage and handle conflicts and resolutions.
The Level 10 Meeting Agenda is composed of the following:
- Segue – Spend 5 minutes sharing one personal best and one professional best from the previous week. No discussion; just an announcement. This helps move your team from working “in the business” to working “on the business”.
- Review your company scorecard. This is a 5 minute high-level review to make sure your most important five to 15 numbers are on track. The person responsible for the number says whether it is “on track” or “off track”. If the number is “off”, move that measureable to the Issues List portion of the agenda.
- Rock review. Take 5 minutes to review your company and individual Rocks to determine if they are “on track” or “off track.” Again, if the rock is “off”, move it to the Issues List portion of the agenda.
- Customer/Employee headlines. This is a 5 minute opportunity to announce any news, positive or negative, about a customer or employee. If the announcement is an issue, add it to the Issues List portion of the agenda.
- To-Do List. Review the seven-day action items from the previous meeting, and report whether each task is “done” or “not done.” This should take no more than 5 minutes
- Issues List. Your leadership team now has 60 minutes to identify, discuss and solve your company’s biggest issues in order of priority. Solving an issue usually requires someone to take action, which becomes a task for the to-do list for review at your next meeting.
- Conclude. Use your final 5 minutes to bring the meeting to a close, recap the to-do list and discuss any messages that need to be communicated to the rest of the organization. And rate the meeting on a scale of 1 – 10; this helps your team self-correct. Establish the practice that anyone who rates the meeting below an “8” must explain why, and “because I never give high marks” is not an acceptable reason.
If every meeting follows the same agenda, is held on the same day and time each week, and has a solid start and end time, your Level 10 Meetings will accomplish its goals and take your business to the next level.
If your company’s meetings need to be more effective and productive, contact us. We can help.
About EOS
EOS™ is a holistic management system with simple tools that help you do three things we call vision, traction, healthy. Vision from the standpoint of first getting your leaders 100% on the same page with where your organization is going. Traction from the standpoint of helping your leaders to become more disciplined and accountable, executing really well to achieve every part of your vision. Healthy meaning helping your leaders to become a healthy, functional, cohesive leadership team.
