L10 Meeting
What the L10 Meeting Is
The L10 meeting, short for Level 10 meeting, is the weekly leadership meeting format from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) created by Gino Wickman. The name refers to the goal: a meeting so productive that participants rate it a 10 out of 10.
The format is prescriptive by design. Every L10 meeting lasts exactly 90 minutes, follows the same agenda in the same order, and ends on time regardless of where the discussion stands.
The L10 is used by EOS implementing companies worldwide, typically by the leadership team (5 to 8 people) and cascading to department level teams. What makes it distinct from a generic staff meeting is the IDS process: every issue is Identified, Discussed, and Solved during the meeting rather than tabled for later. The meeting either produces a decision or assigns a concrete to do with an owner. Nothing leaves the room unresolved.
Commonly Confused With
| Term | Key Difference |
|---|---|
| All Hands Meeting → | An all hands updates the whole company; an L10 is a structured weekly leadership problem solving session. |
| Daily Standup → | An L10 solves strategic issues over 90 minutes; a daily standup is a quick 15 minute blocker check. |
The L10 Agenda (90 Minutes, Every Time)
The agenda is fixed and non negotiable. Segue and check in (5 minutes): each person shares one personal and one professional good news item. This brief human connection prevents the meeting from feeling purely transactional. Scorecard review (5 minutes): review the team’s 5 to 15 weekly metrics. Any metric that is off track gets dropped to the Issues List for discussion later. Rock review (5 minutes): check progress on quarterly priorities (rocks). On track or off track. Off track rocks go to the Issues List. Customer and employee headlines (5 minutes): anyone shares relevant news about customers or team members. Brief updates, no discussion.
To do list review (5 minutes): review last week’s to dos. Each is either done or not done. No explanations, no extensions. Not done items go to the Issues List. IDS (Identify, Discuss, Solve) (60 minutes): this is the core of the meeting. The team works through the Issues List starting with the most important issue. For each issue: identify the root cause (not the symptom), discuss solutions (with a strict no tangent rule), and solve by making a decision or assigning a to do. The 60 minute IDS block is what makes the L10 different from every other meeting format. Problems do not get tabled. They get solved or assigned in real time.
Conclude (5 minutes): recap to dos created during this meeting, confirm decisions, cascade messages (what needs to be communicated to the rest of the organization), and rate the meeting 1 to 10.
Why the L10 Works
Three design decisions make the L10 effective. First, the fixed time limit creates urgency. Knowing the meeting ends at exactly 90 minutes forces the team to prioritize the most important issues rather than spending 45 minutes on the first topic. Second, the IDS process prevents circular discussion. Identifying the root cause before discussing solutions stops the team from debating symptoms. Third, the meeting rating at the end creates accountability. If the team consistently rates meetings below 8, the format needs adjustment: the wrong issues are being raised, the right people are not in the room, or someone is dominating the discussion.
Your Learning Path
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L10 Meeting Template Template page
A structured agenda template for running the EOS Level 10 Meeting, a 90 minute weekly…
Common Questions About L10 Meeting
What does L10 stand for?
L10 stands for Level 10, referring to the goal of running a meeting so productive that participants would rate it 10 out of 10. It is the weekly leadership meeting format from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) created by Gino Wickman. The rating happens at the end of every meeting as an accountability mechanism.
What is the IDS process?
IDS stands for Identify, Discuss, Solve. For each issue on the Issues List, the team first identifies the root cause (not the symptom), then discusses potential solutions (with a strict no tangent rule), then solves by making a decision or assigning a specific to do with an owner. The 60 minute IDS block is the core of the L10 meeting.
How long is an L10 meeting?
Exactly 90 minutes. The fixed duration is non negotiable in the EOS framework. The meeting starts on time and ends on time regardless of where the discussion stands. This constraint forces the team to prioritize issues by importance and prevents meetings from expanding to fill whatever time is available.