Level 10 Meeting Agenda Template and How to Use It

A Level 10 meeting agenda is a repeatable weekly format, commonly used by leadership teams following the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), that reserves time to review metrics, priorities, commitments, and the most important issues. The standard version lasts 90 minutes; use the blank template below to assign owners, record decisions, and keep the meeting on track.

What a Level 10 meeting is

A Level 10 meeting is a structured meeting for a leadership team, usually held once a week. Its name comes from a rating participants give the meeting at the end, on a scale of one to ten. The goal is not to guarantee a perfect score; the rating is a quick way to notice whether the meeting is useful and where its format or facilitation might improve.

The agenda is associated with EOS, a business-management framework. Terms such as “Rocks” and “IDS” have specific meanings in that framework: Rocks are a small set of important priorities for a quarter, and IDS means Identify, Discuss, Solve. Teams outside EOS sometimes adapt the same agenda, but they may change the terminology or timings. A Level 10 meeting is therefore more than a general label for any weekly check-in: it refers to a particular sequence and a disciplined approach to working through issues.

The standard 90-minute agenda

The commonly used format assigns a fixed block of time to each section. Keeping the sequence consistent makes it easier to distinguish routine reporting from problem-solving.

1. Segue — 5 minutes: Each person shares a brief personal and professional positive update. This helps the group connect before moving into business, without turning the opening into a long round of status reports.
2. Scorecard — 5 minutes: Review a short list of weekly measurable indicators. The focus is on whether each number is on track or off track, not on explaining every result in detail. Significant problems can be added to the issues list.
3. Rock review — 5 minutes: Check the quarter’s key priorities and mark each as on track or off track. A Rock that needs discussion can become an issue for the later problem-solving section.
4. Customer and employee headlines — 5 minutes: Share important feedback, news, or concerns from customers and employees. This gives the team a chance to spot a pattern or emerging issue without spending the whole meeting on one anecdote.
5. To-do list — 5 minutes: Review the previous week’s action items and mark each complete or incomplete. Unfinished work may need a new owner, a revised deadline, or a place on the issues list.
6. IDS — 60 minutes: Identify, discuss, and solve the most important issues. The team clarifies what is really causing a problem, discusses it with the relevant people, and agrees on a practical resolution or next action.
7. Conclude — 5 minutes: Recap new to-dos, clarify messages that need to be shared with others, and rate the meeting. The total is 90 minutes.

These timings are a working structure, not a requirement to cut off a critical discussion blindly. They do, however, make trade-offs visible: if one topic consumes its allotted time, the facilitator can decide whether to move it into IDS, assign follow-up work, or adjust another part of the agenda deliberately.

Level 10 meeting agenda template

Keep the template simple enough to use every week. For a live meeting, a facilitator can record decisions and actions as the team agrees to them; for a printable copy, leave the cells blank and write in the status and follow-up details during the discussion.

How to prepare and run the meeting

A reliable meeting starts before everyone sits down. Participants should update their numbers, review their priorities, and bring forward issues they cannot resolve alone. The facilitator should make sure the agenda and previous action list are available, then protect the time blocks without doing all the talking.

1. Set the meeting rhythm. Pick a regular weekly time and agree on who attends. A consistent slot reduces repeated scheduling and helps the meeting become part of the team’s operating routine.
2. Define useful measures. Choose a manageable scorecard of numbers that can be reviewed weekly and have clear owners. A useful measure points to an outcome or activity the team can respond to; a vague label without a defined meaning is difficult to assess.
3. Collect issues during the week. Participants can note problems as they arise instead of trying to remember them during IDS. Describe each issue briefly and add it to a shared list for prioritization.
4. Review facts before explanations. Mark measures and priorities as on or off track first. If a result needs a detailed explanation, add the underlying question to the issues list rather than letting the routine review overrun.
5. Close with explicit commitments. Record each action with one responsible owner and a clear due date. “Look into the delay” is hard to verify; “Morgan will identify the cause of the shipping delay by Thursday” is clearer.

The meeting works best when participants arrive prepared and speak candidly. The facilitator’s role is to keep the group on the current agenda item, make sure quieter members can contribute, and prevent a discussion from ending with an unclear decision. A note-taker can help, but the group remains responsible for agreeing on what the notes mean.

Using IDS to solve issues

IDS is the agenda’s main problem-solving block, not simply a longer version of a status update. First, identify the real issue. A symptom such as “the launch is late” may conceal a more specific problem, such as an unresolved approval or unclear ownership. Agreeing on the issue matters because a team can spend a long time discussing different interpretations of the same headline.

Next, discuss the issue with the people who have relevant information. Ask questions, test assumptions, and make room for disagreement. The goal is not to defend a department or produce a lengthy history of events; it is to understand enough to choose a useful response. Then solve it by deciding what will change. That may mean an action, a decision, a policy adjustment, or a further investigation with an owner and deadline.

Teams often list more issues than they can solve in one meeting. Rank them by importance and address the highest-priority items first rather than trying to touch every topic. If an issue is not reached, leave it on the list for a future meeting. If the group discovers that an item is too large for the available time, define a narrower question or schedule a separate working session with the necessary people.

Adapting the agenda to your team

The standard format is a useful starting point, but a team’s size, responsibilities, and meeting purpose may call for changes. Keep the distinction between routine review and issue-solving even if you adapt the labels. Changing every section every week makes it harder to build a dependable rhythm and compare what is happening over time.

• For a small team: One person may facilitate and take notes, but assigning those responsibilities explicitly still helps. Make sure the same person is not expected to lead every discussion and capture every decision without support.
• For a larger leadership group: Ask each function to bring only the most relevant measures and headlines. Long department-by-department reports can crowd out the cross-team issues the meeting is meant to address.
• For a team new to the format: Explain what each section is for and use the same agenda for several meetings before deciding what to change. A short learning period helps distinguish a poor fit from unfamiliarity with the routine.
• For a shorter meeting: Do not simply squeeze every 90-minute section into a shorter slot while expecting the same depth. Consider fewer attendees, a smaller scorecard, or a separate meeting for topics that need detailed work. Keep a clear place for decisions and follow-up.

A Level 10 meeting is generally intended for a team that needs shared visibility and regular decisions. It is not automatically the right format for every conversation. One-to-one feedback, creative workshops, detailed project planning, and urgent incident response may need different participants, preparation, or time. A recurring leadership meeting can identify the need for that work without trying to replace it.

Common problems and practical fixes

The meeting turns into a series of reports. Keep scorecard and priority reviews brief. Record a topic that needs explanation and return to it during IDS, where the group can discuss it properly.

The same issues return each week. Check whether the team is solving a root cause or merely assigning another temporary task. Confirm that each action has an owner and deadline, then review whether the action actually resolved the issue. A repeated problem may need a better-defined issue or a decision with broader consequences.

To-dos are vague or routinely unfinished. Use observable actions with one owner and a realistic due date. If an action is blocked, identify the obstacle rather than quietly carrying it forward without discussion. The purpose of the list is accountability and learning, not blame.

One person dominates IDS. The facilitator can ask for other perspectives, check whether the issue has been defined accurately, and pause discussion that is no longer moving toward a decision. Invite people closest to the work to contribute, while keeping the group focused on the shared issue.

The rating is low but nobody says why. Treat the score as a prompt, not a verdict. Ask what one change would make the next meeting more useful. A low rating may point to unclear preparation, weak facilitation, irrelevant metrics, or unresolved discussion; it is more useful when paired with a specific observation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is a Level 10 meeting?
The standard agenda is 90 minutes, with 60 minutes reserved for IDS and shorter blocks for the other sections. Teams sometimes adapt the schedule, but changing the duration means making deliberate choices about what to preserve and what to handle elsewhere.

Why is it called a Level 10 meeting?
Participants rate the meeting from one to ten at the end. The number is a quick feedback signal about the meeting’s usefulness, not a measure of a person’s performance and not a promise that every meeting will receive a ten.

What does IDS mean in a Level 10 meeting?
IDS means Identify, Discuss, Solve. The team defines the real issue, discusses the relevant facts and perspectives, and agrees on a resolution or a specific next action.

What are Rocks in the agenda?
Rocks are important priorities set for a quarter in the EOS framework. During the weekly meeting, the team checks whether each priority is on track or off track and moves issues needing discussion into the issues list.

Can a Level 10 agenda be used for a non-EOS team?
Yes. A team can adapt the meeting sequence, but should explain any changed terms and preserve clear ownership, focused problem-solving, and documented follow-up. If the format does not suit the meeting’s purpose, another agenda may work better.

Making the template useful over time

Use the template as a working record, not a form to complete for its own sake. After several meetings, look for practical patterns: measures that never prompt a decision, actions that regularly slip, issues that recur, or agenda sections that consistently run long. Adjust the meeting based on those observations, while keeping its basic purpose clear: review what matters, solve the most important issues, and leave with accountable next steps.

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