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Level 10 Meeting Template: The Agenda That Runs Itself
- Daniel Madhan
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Here's something most business owners get wrong they think their team has a meeting problem, when really they have a structure problem. There's a big difference. Having too many meetings is not the problem. The problem is having unproductive meetings. That's exactly the reason for the Level 10 Meeting.
What the Level 10 Meeting Is Built to Do
The Level 10™ Meeting is a weekly leadership meeting with a very specific purpose. EOS™ tells your leadership team how to work together consistently and efficiently.
The "Level 10" name is an aspiration the goal is for every person in the room to walk out rating that meeting a ten out of ten. That only happens when the meeting has a clear structure, a set agenda, and zero room for rambling.
The 23-Hour Problem the Level 10 Meeting Template Solves
Research shows that executives lose up to 23 hours every single week to unproductive meetings. That's more than half a standard work week, gone. The Level 10 Meeting template attacks this problem head-on by giving your leadership team a repeatable rhythm not just for the meeting itself, but for how the whole business moves forward week after week.
The cost of bad meetings
Research shows that executives lose up to 23 hours every single week to unproductive meetings. That's more than half a standard work week, gone.
The Standard Level 10 Meeting Agenda: Segue, Scorecard, Rocks, Headlines, To-Dos, IDS, Conclude
The Level 10 Meeting has seven parts, and they always run in the exact same order. That structure is what makes the whole thing work.
Segue: Pulling People Into the Room
It kicks off with a Segue, where everyone shares one good thing happening in their life or work. It's not pointless chit-chat. It pulls people out of their email-brain and actually into the room. Skip it, and you'll notice your team is still half-distracted by the time you hit the hard stuff.
Scorecard, Rocks, Headlines, To-Dos: The Quick Five-Minute Sweeps
After that, the Scorecard™ gives you a quick five-minute look at your most important weekly numbers the metrics that matter most. Then come your Rocks™, the big priorities you've committed to crushing in the next 90 days, reviewed in another five minutes. Headlines give you a fast five-minute sweep of anything critical happening with customers, employees, or the business. To-Dos from last week get a quick check done or not done.
IDS: The 60-Minute Engine Room
IDS™ (Identify, Discuss, Solve) is where your team digs into real problems and actually fixes them. 60 minutes is dedicated for IDS.
Conclude: Lock In the Next Steps
Finally, you Conclude rate the meeting, lock in next steps, and make sure the right messages reach your wider team.
The 7-Part L10 Agenda and Time Allocations
Segment | Time | Its one job |
Segue | 5 min | Pulls people out of their email-brain and into the room |
Scorecard | 5 min | A quick look at your most important weekly numbers |
Rock Review | 5 min | The big priorities you've committed to crushing in the next 90 days |
Headlines | 5 min | A fast sweep of anything critical with customers, employees, or the business |
To-Do Review | 5 min | Last week's To-Dos - done or not done |
IDS | 60 min | Where your team digs into real problems and actually fixes them |
Conclude | 5 min | Rate the meeting, lock in next steps, cascade messages |
Level 10 Meeting Time Allocation: Why Most L10s Run Over and How to Fix It
The Scorecard Segment Is the Biggest Time Leak
Your L10 meeting is running long because people are solving problems in the wrong part of the meeting. The Scorecard segment is the biggest culprit. One bad number appears on the board, and before you know it, someone is explaining what went wrong, another person is jumping in with a fix, and you have just burned through 20 minutes without even touching your Rocks. That whole conversation should be on the IDS list, not the Scorecard.
Every Segment Stays in Its Own Lane
Every segment in the Level 10 Meeting has a specific job and a specific time limit for a reason. The Scorecard gets five minutes, and its only job is to highlight numbers that need attention. When something looks off, you drop it on the IDS list and keep moving. The same rule applies to Headlines and To-Dos. Each segment stays in its own lane, no exceptions.
Appoint a Timekeeper Who Calls Time Without Hesitation
Appoint a dedicated timekeeper. Their job is to call time without hesitation. Meetings with a designated timekeeper finish on schedule far more consistently. You do not need more time. You need more discipline.
You do not need more time. You need more discipline.
The L10 Scorecard Review: What to Discuss vs What to Just Note
What a Good Scorecard Actually Holds
A good Scorecard holds between 5 and 15 numbers, each tracked every week, each belonging to one specific person, and each tied to a clear target. When your team sits down to review it, the only job on the table is spotting which numbers have gone red meaning they missed their goal.
Not Every Red Number Is a Crisis
Here is where most teams quietly go off track. The moment a number turns red, people jump into problem-solving mode. But not every red number is a crisis. Some are red because something unusual happened that week and won't repeat itself. Some are red because the original goal was simply set too high, while some are red because something is genuinely broken and keeps happening. Only the third situation actually deserves a deeper conversation. Specifically, it belongs in IDS, which is where your team formally identifies, discusses, and solves real problems.
The One Question: Trend or Single Event?
The key question to ask is this: "Am I looking at a trend, or just a single event?" One bad week of sales calls is a single event acknowledge it and move on. But three straight weeks below target is a pattern or trend. Patterns deserve keen attention. That number either becomes a priority goal (called a Rock) or an IDS item.
When done right, your Scorecard review should quickly produce a short list of real issues to hand off to IDS not turn into a long, draining debate about what the data might mean.
The L10 Rocks Review: Moving Beyond On Track/Off Track
Why "On Track, On Track, On Track" Tells You Nothing
Rocks are the three to seven goals your team absolutely must finish within the next 90 days. Consider them your quarter's non-negotiables the priorities that will move the business forward in a meaningful way. The issue is that most teams do the Rocks review in their L10 meeting as a checkbox activity instead of a conversation.
"On track." "On track." "On track." And just like that, you've moved on. Those two words say very little about what is really going on. A more honest Rocks review digs a little deeper. Ask the owner: What specifically did you accomplish on this Rock in the last seven days? What is your next step? Is anything standing in your way? These questions matter because a Rock can sit in "on track" territory for weeks while quietly going nowhere.
A Real-World Logistics Company Story
A logistics company I previously did business with had around 40 employees. I was checking in on their Rocks every single week and everything looked fine on the surface. Then week 10 of a 13-week quarter arrived, and suddenly, three Rocks were incomplete. No one wanted to raise a red flag, so the team continued to say "on track" for social comfort, not honesty. The problem would have become apparent around week four, when the meeting facilitator had asked each owner to state their most recent milestone, and it would have been fixed in time.
The Level 10 meeting template provides you with a good structure. However, the framework is only effective if you ask more specific and challenging questions within it.
Three Questions That Make a Rocks Review Honest
✓ What specifically did you accomplish on this Rock in the last seven days?
✓ What is your next step?
✓ Is anything standing in your way?
L10 IDS: How to Actually Solve Instead of Just Discussing
Why 60 Minutes Goes to IDS
IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve) is the engine room of the Level 10 Meeting. It gets a full 60 minutes out of your 90-minute session, which tells you exactly how important it's supposed to be. Most teams treat that time like an open conversation hour. They talk, share opinions, go in circles, and walk out having solved absolutely nothing.
State the Issue in a Single, Clear Sentence
The fix starts before the discussion even begins. Whoever brings an issue to the table must state it in a single, clear sentence. No backstory, no "so basically what happened was..." just the issue itself. "We're losing clients in our first 90 days, and we don't know why" is a real issue. "I wanted to bring something up about onboarding" is just a topic it gives the team nothing concrete to work with.
Find the Root Cause, Then Assign One Owner
The discussion should run long enough to find the root cause once the issue is identified. After that, the team should make a decision, and assign it to one specific person. A deadline should be set for the execution. The item should be moved to next week or gets escalated if no decision is made.
Prioritize the IDS List First
One smart habit is prioritizing your IDS list at the very start. Teams that tackle the most important issues first often find that solving two or three big problems automatically makes the smaller ones disappear.
Real Issue vs Just a Topic
A real issue - gives the team something to solve | Just a topic - gives nothing concrete |
"We're losing clients in our first 90 days, and we don't know why" | "I wanted to bring something up about onboarding" |
What an Level 10 Meeting template Can't Fix: Enforcement Between This L10 and the Next One
To-Dos Are Seven-Day Contracts
A well-designed Level 10 Meeting template is only as effective as the team's willingness to take action on the To-Do items. To-Dos are not loose intentions that you can revisit when it is convenient. They are seven-day contracts with a definite end date. High-performing teams that completed 90% or more of their weekly To-Dos are revealed by EOS research. Teams that don't do well are in the 60-70% range. That 20-30% gap is actually where execution slowly breaks down and momentum dies.
The completion gap
High-performing teams complete 90% or more of their weekly To-Dos. Teams that don't do well are in the 60-70% range. That 20-30% gap is where execution slowly breaks down and momentum dies.
The Work After the Meeting Matters Most
The work your team does after the meetings is more important than what is said in the meetings. If you're still not getting things done, the issue isn't the meeting. This issue is that nobody is really being held accountable. The Level 10 Meeting honestly exposes that pattern every week through the To-Do review. However, identifying the issue and resolving it are two different things, and it's up to you to do the latter.
The Bottom Line
The work your team does after the meetings is more important than what is said in the meetings.
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