In an open and honest organization, the Issues List is a tool that creates the discipline needed to keep all business issues out in the open and organized. As business coaches or EOS Implementers™ teach, having this level of honesty in an organization means that everyone, from leadership teams and others in the organization, has a clear understanding of what your issues are.
There are three different type of Issues Lists that every leadership team should have in place, including:
1. The Issues List in the Vision/Traction Organization™ (V/TO™)
As taught by business coaches or EOS Implementors, these are the company issues that can be shelved for 90 days and tackled in future quarterly meetings. This list can include items such as new product ideas, key employee issues, technology needs and HR needs.
2. The Weekly Leadership Team Issues List
These issues are the most relevant issues for the week and quarter that must be handled at the highest level at weekly leadership team meetings. These issues include Rocks being off track, a bad number in the Scorecard, key employee issues, major client difficulties and process-related issues.
3. The Departmental Issues List
These issues are on a more local level than the others, and include all the relevant departmental issues for the week that must be tackled during the weekly departmental meetings. This can include the sale team hitting its call numbers, marketing presentations, closing business, marketing and other issues.
Having an open and honest culture with a strong leadership team and clear Issues Lists will allow discussion and solutions to start flowing freely. With each issue properly identified, recorded and compartmentalized into the appropriate list, you can start working on solving them one at a time.
