The fix is the Level 10 Meeting: a 90-minute weekly EOS meeting that helps your team stay focused, solve Issues, and leave with clear To-Dos.
When your weekly leadership meeting runs long, circles the same problems, or ends without clear next steps, the issue usually isnโt effort. Your team is showing up. People are sharing updates, raising concerns, and trying to move the business forward.
The problem is that the meeting lacks sufficient structure.
Without a clear way to separate updates from problem-solving, conversations start to wander. One number leads to a 20-minute discussion. A customer problem takes over the agenda. Someone brings up an Issue that was supposed to be solved three weeks ago.
By the end, everyone has talked a lot, and the team still hasnโt made much progress.
EOS addresses that problem with the Level 10 Meeting, a 90-minute weekly leadership team meeting designed to help teams stay focused, solve Issues, and gain traction.
Why Weekly Leadership Meetings Become Unproductive
Weekly leadership meetings usually become unproductive when too many things are happening at the same time.
The team is trying to share updates, talk through problems, make decisions, and figure out next steps, all in the same conversation. Thatโs when meetings start to drift. A quick update turns into a debate. A problem gets talked about, but not really solved. A decision gets made, and a week later, people remember it differently.
A productive meeting gives everything a clear place:
- What the team needs to know
- What the team needs to solve
- What happens next
That simple structure helps the team stop circling the same conversations and start using the weekly meeting to move the business forward.
Start by Quickly Seeing What Needs Attention
A productive weekly meeting shouldnโt spend most of its time reporting.
Your leadership team does need a quick look at the business. Are the important numbers on track? Are your major 90-day priorities moving forward? Is there anything happening with customers or employees that the team needs to know? Did people complete what they committed to last week?
In the Level 10 Meeting, those areas have a clear place: Scorecard, Rocks, Customer/Employee Headlines, and To-Dos.
The terms matter because they give the team a shared language, but the real value comes from how the team uses the information.
The point is not to talk through every detail. It is to quickly see what needs attention. When something is on track, move on. When something is off track and needs a conversation, drop it to the Issues List so the team can IDS it during the problem-solving part of the meeting.
That keeps a quick business check from turning into an hour of status updates.
Spend Most of the Meeting Solving the Right Problems
Once the team knows what needs attention, the real work begins.
One reason the same problems keep coming back is that teams often solve the first thing they see instead of getting to the root of the Issue.
A sales problem might actually be a process problem. A missed deadline could be a capacity Issue. A customer complaint might point to a larger problem with how work gets handed off.
EOS uses the Issues Solving Track, IDS, which stands for Identify, Discuss, Solve.
First, the team identifies the real Issue. Then it discusses what needs to be said. Finally, the team agrees on a solution.
When a solution requires follow-through, it becomes a To-Do with one clear owner.
The goal isnโt to have another good conversation about the problem. Itโs to solve the Issue so the team doesnโt have to keep talking about it.
Make Sure Everyone Knows What Happens Next
Even a productive meeting can fall apart if people leave with different ideas about what was decided.
Thatโs why the last five minutes of the Level 10 Meeting matter.
Before the team leaves, everyone reviews the To-Dos one more time so it is clear who owns what. Then the team agrees on any Cascading Messages: who needs to know, when, and how.
After that, each person rates the meeting from one to ten. The rating gives the team a quick way to stay honest about whether the meeting worked and what could be better next time.
A meeting is not finished when the discussion stops. It is finished when everyone is clear on the To-Dos, the communication, and how well the team used the time.
The 90-Minute Level 10 Meeting Agenda
The Level 10 Meeting creates a weekly Pulse: same day, same time, same agenda, starts on time, and ends on time.
Hereโs how the 90 minutes are divided:
- Segue: 5 minutes
- Scorecard: 5 minutes
- Rock Review: 5 minutes
- Customer/Employee Headlines: 5 minutes
- To-Do List: 5 minutes
- IDS: 60 minutes
- Conclude: 5 minutes
The first 25 minutes give the team a quick read on the business and weekly accountability. The next 60 minutes are reserved for solving the most important Issues. The final five minutes make sure everyone leaves clear on decisions, To-Dos, and communication.
The structure is intentionally simple. Your team doesnโt have to decide how to run the meeting every week, which means it can spend more time working on the business itself.
Turn weekly meetings into focused time for solving Issues and creating accountability.
What Makes a Weekly Leadership Meeting Effective?
A useful weekly leadership meeting should help your team answer three questions:
- Are we on track?
- Whatโs getting in our way?
- What are we going to do about it?
If your meeting consistently answers those questions, itโs doing its job.
The team gets the information it needs without getting buried in updates. Important problems have a clear place to go. The right Issues get solved. Everyone leaves knowing what they own.
That creates a stronger weekly Pulse and helps the team gain traction.
How to Start Having Better Business Meetings
You donโt need to overhaul everything at once. Start by looking at how your leadership team currently spends its meeting time.
Ask yourselves:
- Are we spending more time giving updates or solving problems?
- Do the same Issues keep coming back?
- Does everyone leave knowing exactly what they own?
Those answers will usually show you where the meeting is breaking down.
From there, commit to the Level 10 Meeting agenda for the next 90 days. Meet on the same day, at the same time, and follow the same agenda. Start on time and end on time.
The format may feel different at first if your team is used to a looser meeting. Stay with it. Consistency gives the team more room to focus on the business rather than figuring out how to run the meeting.
Your Weekly Meeting Should Move the Business Forward
Your weekly leadership meeting should make the rest of the week easier.
It should help your team quickly see what matters, solve whatโs getting in the way, and leave knowing what happens next.
Thatโs what the Level 10 Meeting does.
In 90 minutes, your leadership team can spend less time reporting, more time solving Issues, and build a more effective weekly Pulse for gaining traction.
Download the Level 10 Meeting Tool and start running a more productive weekly leadership meeting.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are my business meetings so unproductive?
Business meetings are often unproductive because the team spends too much time reporting, does not solve Issues at the root, or leaves without clear To-Dos. A consistent meeting structure helps the team separate updates from problem-solving, stay focused, and use the meeting time more effectively.
What makes a weekly leadership meeting effective?
An effective weekly leadership meeting helps the team stay focused, review what is on track, solve the most important Issues, and leave with clear To-Dos. In EOS, the Level 10 Meeting gives the leadership team a consistent 90-minute weekly structure for doing exactly that.
How can I tell if our weekly leadership meeting needs a better structure?
Your weekly leadership meeting probably needs a better structure if the team regularly runs over time, gets stuck in updates, revisits the same Issues, or leaves unclear on who owns what. A productive weekly meeting should help the team quickly see what needs attention, solve what matters most, and leave with clear To-Dos.
How do you keep leadership meetings from getting off track?
You keep leadership meetings from getting off track by giving each part of the meeting a clear place and purpose. In a Level 10 Meeting, updates stay brief, off-track items go to the Issues List, and the team protects dedicated time for IDS.
Why do the same Issues keep coming up in leadership meetings?
The same Issues keep coming up in leadership meetings when the team has not identified the real Issue or agreed on clear follow-through. In EOS, IDS helps the team Identify the real Issue, Discuss it openly, and Solve it so the Issue does not keep coming back.
What makes the Level 10 Meeting different from a typical weekly leadership meeting?
The Level 10 Meeting is different from a typical weekly leadership meeting because it follows the same 90-minute agenda every week: quick reporting, weekly accountability, IDS, and a clear conclusion. That structure helps the leadership team stay focused, solve Issues, and leave aligned on To-Dos and Cascading Messages.
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